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SUPPLEMENTARY EDUCATIONAL MONOGRAPHS 

Published in conjunction with 
THE SCHOOL REVIEW and THE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL JOURNAL 

No. 19 May 1922 



THE SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF 

AMERICAN SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 



THE SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF 

AMERICAN SECONDARY 

EDUCATION 



By 

GEORGE SYLVESTER COUNTS 




THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 



uK'- 






Copyright 1922 By 
The University of Chicago 



All Rights Reserved 



Published May 1922 



mi 14 1922 



t> I 



ACKNOWLED GMENTS 

Many persons have contributed to the success of this study, and, while 
it is quite impossible to name all those who have helped in one way or another 
from the securing of the data to the reading of the manuscript, the writer 
wishes particularly to express his appreciation of the kindly co-operation of 
the following workers in the field without which the study would not have been 
possible: Assistant Superintendent G. M. Laselle, Principal James C. Moore, 
Principal H. J. Hanson, Dr. A. C. Sides, Mr. Frank M. Ham, Mrs. Florence F. 
Batchelder, Miss Katherine A. Flanagan, and Miss Harriet F. Lambert of 
Bridgeport; Superintendent W. H. Holmes of Mt. Vernon; Assistant Super- 
intendent W. J. S. Bryan and Principals William M. Butler, Stephen A. 
Douglas, John J. Maddox, Armand R. Miller, John R. Powell, H. H. Ryan, 
and Frank L. Williams of St. Louis; Vocational Difector S. E. Fleming and 
Principals Karl F. Adams, L. P. Bennett, F. L. Cassidy, V. K. Froula, O. L. 
Luther, and James A. Reed of Seattle; and Morton Snyder formerly Princi- 
pal of the University of Chicago High School and Principal Lewis Perry of 
the Phillips-Exeter Academy. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

PAGE 

List of Tables ix 

List of Figures xiii 

PART I. INTRODUCTION 

Chapter I. The Problem i 

Chapter II. Source and Collection of the Data .... 5 

Chapter III. Character of the Cities Chosen for the Study . 14 

PART II. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA 

Chapter IV. Parental Occupation — Classification . . . 21 

Chapter V. Parental Occupation and Total Enrolment . . 26 
Chapter VI. Parental Occupation and Progress through the 

School 36 

Chapter VII. Parental Occupation and Children of High-School 

Age Not in High School 46 

Chapter VIII. Parental Occupation and the Course of Study . 55 
Chapter IX. Parental Occupation and Expectations Following 

Graduation 74 

Chapter X. The Public High School and the Cultural Level 87 
Chapter XI. The Public High School and Family Influences . 95 
Chapter XII. The Public High School and the Immigrant . . 106 
Chapter XIII. The Public High School and the Negro . . . 114 i-^ 
Chapter XIV. The Public High School and Psychological Selec- 
tion 124 

Chapter XV. The Population of the Private Secondary School 135 

PART III. CONCLUSION AND INTERPRETATION 

Chapter XVI. The Selective Character of American Secondary 

Education 141 

Chapter XVII. The High School and Democracy .... 149 

Index 157 



LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGE 

I. Number and sex of high-school students filling out the 

information card in each of the cities lo 

II. Number and sex of children filling out the information card 

in each of the non-high-school groups 1 1 

III. Number and distribution of children taking the intelligence 

tests II 

IV. Increase of population in each of the four cities from 1870 to 

1920 IS 

V. Racial and ethnic composition of the populations of the four 

cities according to the Census of 1910 16 

VI. Nativity of foreign-born whites and parents of native whites 

of foreign parentage in the four cities (19 10) . . . 17 
VII. Total number of persons ten years of age or over engaged in 

each specified occupation in each of the four cities (1910) 18 
VIII. Number of children of high-school age, number of children in 
the public high schools, and percentage of children of high- 
school age in the public high schools in each of the four 

cities and in the United States in 1918 20 

IX. Occupations of the fathers or guardians of 17,265 students in 
the high schools of four cities — all four years combined. 



— 1919-20, 1920-21 



26 



X. Probable occupations of the fathers or guardians of 100 high- 
school students taken at random from the high-school 
populations of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and 

Seattle — all four years combined 29 

XI. Probable age-distribution of the fathers of 1,000 high-school 
students, derived from data given by 1,391 students in 

Lincoln High School, Seattle 3° 

XII. Percentage of males engaged in each occupation who are 
forty-five years of age and over, derived from the Census 
figures for selected occupations in Bridgeport, St. Louis, 

and Seattle (1910) 32 

XIII. Estimated number of men forty-five years of age and over 
engaged in each set of occupations in Bridgeport, Mt. 
Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle (1910); number of high- 
school students whose fathers or guardians are engaged in 



IX 



LIST OF TABLES 



PAGE 



each set of occupations in the same cities, according to 
studies made in 1919-20 and 1920-21; and number of the 
latter for every 1,000 of the former for each set of occupa- 
tions 33 

XIV. Percentage of students in each of two high-school years from 
each of the occupational groups in the high schools of 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle. Data 
from 6,782 Freshmen and 2,522 Seniors .... 37 

XV. Percentage of children from each occupational group in each 
of two school grades. Data from 739 children in the sixth 
grade and 136 in the Senior year of the high school, 
Mt. Vernon 40 

XVI. Probable occupations of the fathers or guardians of 100 high- 
school seniors taken at random from the high-school popu- 
lations of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 44 

XVII. Percentage distribution of the occupations of the fathers or 
guardians of two groups of children. Data from 514 chil- 
dren of high-school age at work and 6,138 children in high 
school, Seattle 47 

XVIII. Selection of curricula by children from the various occupa- 
tional groups, Bridgeport High School, all classes . , 56 

XIX.' Number and percentage of students from each occupational 
group pursuing each of the five curricula. Boys and girls 
combined. Mt. Vernon High School 61 

XX. Percentage of students in each of the Mt. Vernon high schools 

coming from each occupational group 61 

XXI. Selection of curricxila by children from the various occupa- 
tional groups. St. Louis high schools (white), all classes 65 

XXII. Percentage of girls from each occupational group pursuing the 
general and the two-year commercial courses. St. Louis 
high schools, all classes, December, 1920 .... 66 

XXIII. Percentage distribution of the occupations of the fathers of 

67 students pursuing the classical course and 189 the fine 
arts course in the St. Louis high schools, all classes . . 68 

XXIV. Selection of curricula by children from the various occupa- 

tional groups in the Seattle high schools, all classes . . 70 

XXV. Probable distribution of 100 girls from each occupational 
group over the six courses open to girls in the Seattle high 
schools, all classes 71 



LIST OF TABLES xi 

TABLE PAGE 

XXVI. Probable distribution of loo boys from each occupational 
group over the five curricula open to boys in the Seattle 
high schools, all classes 72 

XXVII. Expectations following graduation of 9,286 girls in the high 

schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 76 
XXVIII. Percentage of girls from each occupational group intending to 
go to college, enter normal school, or engage in clerical work 
on leaving high school. Data from 9,286 students in 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle ... 78 

XXIX. Percentage distribution of the occupations of the fathers or 
guardians of 3,391 girls in all four high-school years and of 
688 girls in the Senior year who are intending to go to col- 
lege. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle . 79 
XXX. Expectations following graduation of 7,979 boys in the high 

schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 82 

XXXI. Number and percentage of boys from each occupational group 
intending to go to college after graduation from high school 
in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, all 

classes 84 

XXXII. Occupations of the fathers or guardians of 451 students in 
the first year of the high school who do not expect to com- 
plete the course, and the percentage from each occupational 
group not expecting to complete the course. Data from 
6,782 Freshmen in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. 
Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 86 

XXXIII. Percentage of students pursuing each curriculum in whose 

homes there are telephones. Mt. Vernon high schools, all 
years 93 

XXXIV. Percentage of students in the high schools of Bridgeport, 

Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, having one or both 
parents deceased. Data from 17,265 cases ... 96 
XXXV. Percentage of students in each year of the high school having 
one or both parents deceased. Data from 17,265 cases in 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle ... 98 
XXXVI. Percentage of students in each of two groups having one or 
both parents deceased. Data from 4,437 students in the 
Freshman year of the high school in Bridgeport, Mt. 

Vernon, and St. Louis 100 

XXXVII. Number of high-school students in four cities having each 

indicated number of brothers and sisters .... 103 
XXXVIII. Numberof firstborn for every 100 lastborn children in each of 

four groups of children of high-school age in Bridgeport . 105 



Xll LIST OF TABLES 

TABLE PAGE 

XXXIX. Nativity of the fathers of 2,257 students in the Bridgeport 

High School 107 

XL. Nativity of the fathers of children in evening high school, 
trade school, and compulsory continuation classes, 
Bridgeport 109 

XLI. Nativity of fathers of children in the Mt. Vernon sixth grade 

and in each year of the Mt. Vernon high schools. . . no 

XLII. Percentage of girls in each group pursuing each of the cur- 
ricula open to girls in the Bridgeport High School. Girls 
grouped according to nativity of fathers . .111 

XLIII. Percentage of boys in each group pursuing each of the cur- 
ricula open to boys in the Bridgeport High School. Boys 
grouped according to nativity of fathers . . .112 

XLIV. Number of boys to 100 girls in Bridgeport High School. 
Students grouped according to nativity of fathers. Data 

from 2,257 cases 113 

XLV. Distribution by sex and year in high school of 727 students 

in the Sumner (colored) High School of St. Louis . . 115 
XLVI. Occupations of the fathers of 727 students in the Sumner 

(colored) High School of St. Louis 116 

XL VII. Percentage of students in the colored and white high schools 

of St. Louis having one or both parents deceased . . 117 
XLVIII. Percentage of girl students in the colored and white high 

schools of St. Louis pursuing the different curricula . .119 
XLIX. Percentage of boy students in the colored and white high 

schools of St. Louis pursuing the different curricula . .120 
L. Expectations following graduation of girls in the colored and 

white high schools of St. Louis 121 

LI. Expectations following graduation of boys in the colored and 

white high schools of St. Louis 122 

LII. Median scores made by girls and boys in each year of the 
high school in Bridgeport. Chapman-Welles Test. Data 

from 2,537 cases 124 

LIII. Median scores made by girls and boys in the first year of the 
high school, the evening high school, the first year of the 
trade school, and the compulsory continuation classes in 

Bridgeport. Chapman-Welles Test 125 

LIV. Median scores made by girls and boys in the various cur- 
ricula in the Bridgeport High School. Chapman-Welles 
Test 128 



LIST OF TABLES xiii 

TABLE PAGE 

LV. Median scores made by Freshman girls and boys in each type 
of curriculum in the Mt. Vernon High School. National 
Intelligence Tests 129 

LVI. Scores made by girls and boys from different occupational 
groups in the Chapman-Welles Test. In each case the 
median scores made in the four high-school years are aver- 
aged. Data from Bridgeport High School . . . .129 
LVII. Median scores made by Freshmen of the Mt. Vernon High 
School in the National Intelligence Tests, classified accord- 
ing to the occupation of the father 130 

LVIII. Scores made in Chapman-Welles Test by girls and boys, 
classified according to nativity of the father. Median 
scores made in the four school years are averaged in each 
case. Bridgeport High School 131 

LIX. Comparison of scores made by firstborn and lastborn children 
in the Bridgeport High School in the Chapman-Welles 
Test. In each case the median scores made in the four 

high-school years are averaged 132 

LX. Comparison of median scores made in the National Intelli- 
gence Tests by firstborn and lastborn children in the Mt. 
Vernon High School 133 

LXI. Comparison of median scores made in Chapman-Welles Test 
by children coming from families of three different sizes 
in the Bridgeport High School. In each case the median 
scores made in the four high-school years are averaged . 133 
LXII. Comparison of median scores made in the National Intelli- 
gence Tests by children coming from families of three 
different sizes in the Mt. Vernon High School . . . 134 

LXIII. Occupations of fathers or guardians of 201 students in 
Phillips-Exeter Academy and 418 in the University of 
Chicago High School 136 

LXIV. Occupations of fathers or guardians of 17,265 students in the 
public high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, 
and Seattle, and 619 students in the PhiUips-Exeter 
Academy and the University of Chicago High School . 138 

LXV. Nativity of fathers of 619 students in the Phillips-Exeter 

Academy and the University of Chicago High School . 139 

LXVI. Median number of brothers and sisters of the students in the 
public high schools of four cities and in two private 
secondary schools ' . . . . 140 



LIST OF FIGURES 

FIGURE PAGE 

1. Showing relative rates of increase in the total population, the number 

of pupils enrolled in the elementary school, and the number of 
students enrolled in the public high school. United States, 1870- 
1918 2 

2. Showing the number of children in the high schools of four cities 

(Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupa- 
tional group for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age 
engaged in that occupation in the four cities, according to the 
Federal Census for 1910. Data from 16,283 high-school students 33 

3. Showing for each occupational group the number of students in the 

Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. 
Data from Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle . . 38 

4. Showing percentage of children in each grade from the sixth to the 

twelfth whose fathers are engaged in each of four groups of occupa- 
tions. Mt. Vernon, May, 192 1 40 

5. Showing for each occupational group the number of children in the 

Senior year of the high school for every 100 from the same group in 

the sixth grade of the elementary school. Mt. Vernon, May, 1921 42 

6. Showing the number of children in the Senior year of the high school 

in foiur cities (Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each 
occupational group for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age 
engaged in that occupation in the four cities, according to the 
Federal Census for 1910. Data from 2,382 high-school Seniors . 42 

7. Showing the number of children from each occupational group 

among children of high-school age at work for every 100 children 
from the same group attending high school. Data from 6,387 chil- 
dren in high school and 514 at work. Seattle, 1919-20 ... 48 

8. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 243 students 

attending the high-school department of the evening school. 
Bridgeport, December, 1920 49 

9. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 198 students 

in the state trade school. Bridgeport, February, 1921 ... 51 

10. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 579 children 
attending the compulsory continuation classes of the evening 
school. Bridgeport, December, 1920 53 



xvi LIST OF FIGURES 

FIGURE PAGE 

11. Showing the number of children from each occupational group among 

children of high-school age not in high school (evening high school, 
trade school, and compulsory continuation classes) for every loo 
students from the same group attending the regular day high 
school. Data from 2,257 children in high school and 1,020 in the 
other three groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21 53 

12. Showing the percentage of girls from each occupational group pur- 

suing the college preparatory and commercial curricula. Bridgeport 
High School 57 

13. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of the 250 girls 

pursuing the college preparatory course in the Bridgeport High 
School 58 

14. Showing for each occupational group the number of students (both 

sexes and all classes) in the vocational high school for every 100 
from the same group in the academic high school. Data from 306 
students in the former and 778 in the latter. Mt. Vernon . . 62 

15. Showing the percentage of boys from each occupational group pur- 

suing the two- and one-year vocational courses. St. Louis high 
schools (white) 67 

16. Showing the percentage of girl students in each of the high-school 

years intending either to go to college or to enter clerical service 
following graduation. Data from 9,286 girls in the high schools of 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle . . . . 77 

17. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians 

of 688 girls in the Senior year of the high school who are intending 

to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 80 

18. Showing for each of two occupational groups the percentage of girls 

in each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridge- 
port, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 81 

19. Showing the percentage of girls and the percentage of boys in each 

year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, 
Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 83 

20. Showing for each of two occupational groups the percentage of boys in 

each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, 
Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 85 

21. Showing the average number of telephones per 1,000 inhabitants in 

five groups of states inigi 7, arranged in order of the percentage that 
high-school attendance was of total public-school attendance in 
1918 89 



LIST OF FIGURES xvii 

FIGURE PAGE 

2 2. Showing the percentage of children in the high school, the trade 
school, and the compulsory continuation classes, in whose homes 
there are telephones. Data from 2,531, from 198, and from 421 
cases respectively. Bridgeport, February and March, 1921 . . 90 

23. Showing the percentage of students in each year of the Bridgeport 

High School in whose homes there are telephones. March, 192 1 90 

24. Showing the percentage of girls in each of three curricula in the 

Bridgeport High School in whose homes there are telephones. 
March, 1921 91 

25. Showing the percentage of boys in each of five curricula in the Bridge- 

port High School in whose homes there are telephones. March, 
1921 91 

26. Showing for each grade from the sixth to the Senior year of the high 

school the percentage of children in whose homes there are tele- 
phones. No data for the seventh and eighth grades. Mt. Vernon, 
May, 1921 93 

27. Showing percentage of children in each of two groups having one or 

both parents deceased. Data from 514 children of high-school age 

at work and 6,387 children in high school. Seattle, 1919-20 . 99 

28. Showing percentage of children in each of four groups having one or 

both parents deceased. Bridgeport, 1920-21 99 

29. Showing the percentage of children in the sixth grade and in the high 

school whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment. 
Mt. Vernon, May, 1921 loi 

30. Showing percentage of children in each of four groups whose mothers 

are working at remunerative employment. Bridgeport, 1919-20 . 102 

31. Showing median number of brothers and sisters for the children in 

each of four groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21 104 

32. Showing for each ethnic group the number of students in the Senior 

year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. Data 

from 2,257 cases. Bridgeport 108 

S;^. Showing the percentage of children in each of four groups whose 

fathers were born in the United States. Bridgeport . . .110 

34. Comparing the negro and white high-school students in St. Louis 

with respect to the percentage having one or both parents deceased 117 

35. Showing percentage of negro and white children in St. Louis high 

schools whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment 118 

36. Comparing whites and negroes with respect to size of family from 

which the high-school students come. St. Louis . . . .118 

37. Showing the median score made in the Chapman- Welles Test by the 

boys in each of four groups. Bridgeport 125 



xviii LIST OF FIGURES 

FIGURE PAGE 

38. Showing by percentages the distribution of scores made by each of 

three groups of boys in the Chapman-Welles Test. Data from 426 
boys in the first year of the high school, 112 boys in the first year 
of the trade school, and 201 boys in the compulsory continuation 
classes. Bridgeport 126 

39. Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians of 

619 students in Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University 

of Chicago High School. Jime, 1921 137 



PART I. INTRODUCTION 
CHAPTER I 

THE PROBLEM 

For two generations the public high school in the United States has 
grown at such a rapid rate as to give it a unique place in the history of 
educational institutions. Appearing late in the first quarter of the 
nineteenth century, it at once entered into a struggle for survival with 
the dominant secondary school of the time, the private academy. For a 
half-century the high school maintained itself with more or less success, 
and was well established by 1870. During the fifty years that have 
elapsed in the meantime it has expanded in a manner quite without 
precedent. From 1890 to 1918 the number of high schools reporting 
to the Bureau at Washington increased from 2,526 to 13,951 ; the number 
of pupils in attendance from 202,963 to 1,645,171; and the number of 
teachers from 9,120 to 81,034. At the same time the population of the 
United States increased from 62,622,250 to approximately 105,253,000. 
Thus while the high-school enrolment increased 711 per cent the total 
population increased but 68 per cent. From year to year this institution 
has constantly attracted a larger and larger proportion of the children 
of high-school age in the nation. 

This remarkable expansion of the high school is impressively pictured 
in Figure I in which the high-school enrolment is compared with that of 
the elementary school and with the total population at five-year periods 
from 1870 to 191 8. The curve for the high school begins with 1871 
instead of the year before, because data for 1870 are not available. 
That the curves for the three series may be easily compared they are 
based on index numbers, derived as indicated in the explanation of the 
diagram. It is seen at once that the high-school curve is distinctly 
different from the curves for the elementary school and the total popula- 
tion. The latter are almost identical and show a steady progression of 
the arithmetical type. The increase of the elementary-school enrolment 
for fifty years has evidently been a function of the general population 
increase. The curve for the high school, on the other hand, is of the 
geometrical order. For the first decade, from 1870 to 1880, the increase 
in high-school enrolment actually failed to keep pace with the growth 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



of population; during the following decade the two series were parallel; 
and since 1890 the high-school enrolment has been growing at a rate 
constantly accelerated from period to period without showing any- 
marked dependence on the general increase of population. Truly the 
American pubUc high school occupies a unique place among educational 
institutions. 



Total population 
Elementary-school enrolment. 
High-school enrolment 




1870 



1880 



1890 1900 
Year 



Fig. I. — Showing relative rates of increase in the total population, the number 
of pupils enrolled in the elementary school, and the number of students enrolled in 
the public high school, United States, 1870-19 18. The index numbers are found 
by dividing the total population and the total enrolment for each date by the respec- 
tive averages for the eleven periods considered. (Adapted from U.S. Bureau of 
Education Bulletin, No. ig, 1920, p. 47.) 

And the end is not yet, as the merest glance at the high-school curve 
shows. In view of the direction it is taking today, apparently there is 
but one ultimate Umitation to the increase in the high-school registration, 
and that is to be found in the number of children of high-school age in 
the population. We are already hearing murmurings about universal 
secondary education. It is pointed out that, in spite of the very rapid 
increase in high-school enrolment in recent years, there are enrolled 
today in our secondary schools, both public and private, only about 



THE PROBLEM 3 

2,000,000 out of a total of approximately 8,300,000 children of high-school 
age in the nation. Some of our states are passing compulsory education 
laws that break with our tradition of compulsory education for the 
elementary period only, and point toward some measure of compulsory 
secondary education. 

The conception of secondary education as education for the selected 
few, whether by birth or by talent, appears to be giving ground before 
the assaults of political democracy and the demands of a society of 
increasing complexity and wealth. Some are saying that, as public 
elementary education is no longer education for the masses, but rather 
education for childhood, so secondary education is no longer education 
for the classes, but rather education for adolescence. Thus in a 
statement made by the teachers of the Washington Irving High School 
for Girls in New York City in 191 1 we find these words: "A public high 
school differs from an elementary school chiefly in the age of its children." 
Such a statement marks a new era in the history of secondary education. 

In view of the remarkable increase in high-school enrolment and the 
changing conception of secondary education, it is becoming increasingly 
pertinent to inquire into the character of that student population which 
is attracted to the public high school. And it is the object of the present 
study to make such an inquiry, at least in so far as the city high school 
is concerned. 

Is it true in practice that the public high school differs from the 
elementary school chiefly in the age of its children ? Has the revolu- 
tionary increase in the high-school enrolment involved the abandonment 
of the selective principle in secondary education ? And more specifically, 
from what occupational groups do the high-school students come ? Are 
all social classes fairly well represented? Is the public high school 
popular in the real sense of the word, or are we maintaining at public 
expense a secondary institution for certain favored classes in spite 
of this extraordinary growth of recent decades? Are the children 
of immigrants, the very children whose years in high school might be 
expected to yield the largest returns to both the individual and society, 
to be found in the high school in proportionate numbers ? Do the various 
immigrant groups exhibit special or characteristic traits toward high- 
school attendance ? What is the reaction of the fi^gro toward the public 
high school ? How are the children from the different social, cultural, 
and racial elements grouping themselves in the high school with respect 
to the courses pursued ? What are their expectations following gradua- 
tion? From the standpoint of securing a secondary education is it 



4 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

fortunate or unfortunate to be the last-born ? How great is the mis- 
fortune of losing one or both parents ? What is the psychological equip- 
ment of those children who enter high school, as compared with those 
who do not? Who remain for graduation? In a word, what is the 
sociological and psychological character of the public high school 
population? Many of these questions have received consideration 
in other investigations — they all receive some attention in the present 
study, although the emphasis throughout is sociological rather than 
psychological. 

It is clear that a thorough study of the high-school population is 
fundamental to the solution of all problems of organization and adminis- 
tration. The high-school student should furnish the point of departure 
for the wise determination of high-school poUcy and practice. 

It is equally clear that an adequate social interpretation of the high 
school must rest upon relatively complete knowledge of the social 
sources from which its population comes, as well as on comparatively 
general agreement as to the objectives at which the school is aiming. 
The contact which the high school makes with the social order through 
the Freshman year is as significant as that which it makes through the 
graduating class. With the former are bound up questions of large 
social import, such as the relation of groups to groups, the stability of 
classes, the source of leadership, and the distribution of power, at least 
in so far as these matters may be affected by the secondary school. It 
is hoped that this study will make some contribution toward such an 
interpretation. 



CHAPTER II 
SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 

In attacking this problem it was decided to take a complete census 
of the high-school population in several American cities representing 
different parts of the country. Obviously, returns from a single high 
school drawing its students from a single quarter of one of our large 
cities would not be satisfactory because of the well-known tendency of 
populations of similar social and economic standing to gravitate to the 
same section of the city. It was thought desirable to study a community 
sufficiently complex to present all the more important groups (except 
the agricultural) found in modern society, and sufficiently large to provide 
representation of each of the groups adequate for statistical purposes. 
For these reasons an entire city was studied in each case. 

THE GROUPS STUDIED 

The cities chosen for the central part of the study were Seattle, 
Washington; St. Louis, Missouri; Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Mt. 
Vernon, New York. These four cities were selected primarily because 
it was found possible to secure data from them, and not because they 
represent an ideal combination to picture the condition of secondary 
education in the United States. The writer has worked in St. Louis, 
Seattle, and Bridgeport in one capacity or another that has brought him 
in touch with the public schools in these places. It was, therefore, pos- 
sible to get that degree of co-operation in gathering the data that is neces- 
sary to insure reasonable accuracy in so comprehensive a study. Mt. 
Vernon was chosen because records from the National InteUigence Tests 
were already available for all students in the elementary school and the 
first year of the high school. Nevertheless, a fairly good case can be 
made out for the selection of these cities from the standpoint of their 
representative character, as will be pointed out in the following chapter. 

In addition to the census of the high-school population, data were 
secured from certain other groups in Seattle, Bridgeport, and Mt. 
Vernon, which it was thought would throw light on our problem. In 
Seattle a study was made of children of high-school age at work in the 
commercial and industrial plants of that city. In Bridgeport facts were 
secured from three additional groups of children: (i) those attending 



6 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the evening high school; (2) those enrolled in the state trade school, an 
institution offering an intensive and practical two-year course in some 
fifteen trades and operating under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes 
Act; and (3) those found in the compulsory continuation classes of the 
evening school, an interesting Connecticut institution enroUing children 
between the ages of fourteen and sixteen years who have left the regular 
day-school to go to work without having completed the elementary 
grades. In Mt. Vernon the sixth grade was included in making the 
study. Facts from these non-high-school groups are of exceptional value 
in interpreting the data from the high-school students. 

Also for the purpose of getting some idea of the character of that large 
body of young folk attending the private secondary schools of the 
country, data were secured from the University of Chicago High School 
and the PhiUips-Exeter Academy. A separate chapter will be set aside 
for the analysis and interpretation of data secured from these sources. 

THE METHOD OF PROCEDURE 

With a few exceptions a uniform procedure was followed in getting 
the data. In the schools, both high and otherwise, a card similar to the 
one reproduced below was filled out by all the children in attendance on 
a certain day. 

MOUNT VERNON HIGH SCHOOL 

Date 

Name Sex Age yrs mos. 

Grade in high school Course 

Is there a telephone in your home or the home in which you live ? 

Language or languages spoken in your home 

Information about father : Living ? Country of birth 

Present occupation Where or for whom does he work ? 

Is he either owner or part owner of the business in which he works ? 

Occupation while alive or while working if not living or working now ? 

Information about mother: Living ? Country of birth 

Helping to support family ? If so, how ? 

If you have a guardian, give his occupation 

How many brothers and sisters have you ? How many are older than you ? 

Do you expect to complete your high school course ? 

If not, why not ? What do you intend to do 

after graduation from high school ? 

To each teacher in charge of a ''home room" was sent the number 
of cards required. Along with this set of cards went a single card filled 
out for a hypothetical case, and the following set of instructions: 



SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 



The chief object of this investigation is to discover the extent to which the 
students in the public high school are drawn from the different population 
groups. The items relating to the parents are, therefore, to be regarded as the 
most significant. The others are of subordinate interest. 

The high-school student should fill in every blank (provided, of course, the 
question is pertinent to his case) except the one for his name. It is not neces- 
sary to have the student's name, if care is taken to fill out the card accurately 
and fully. This item would be of value only in case it should be found desirable 
to refer the card to the student for more complete and definite information. 

In answering the questions relating to the occupation of the father, it is 
particularly important that the answer be as definite as possible, in order that 
the father may at least be accurately placed in one of the larger occupational 
divisions, such as, unskilled labor, semi-skilled labor, skilled labor, the clerical 
occupations, personal service, the professions, the managerial and employing 
occupations. There are two types of answers to be avoided. There is the 
vague and indefinite answer such as "shipyards." Unless this is accompanied 
by a statement of what the father does in the shipyards, the answer is without 
value. In the second place, the student may use a term which has several 
meanings, such as "agent" or "engineer." Obviously such an answer may be 
variously construed. There are many different kinds of agents and several 
different kinds of engineers. The questions concerning the father's place of 
work and his ownership in the business are for the purpose of checking and 
clarifying the response to the question about, occupation. It may be helpful 
in securing accurate information to consult the following list which, according 
to the United States Census for 1910, includes the principal occupations of the 
people of the United States: 



Actors 

Agents, general 

Agents, insurance 

Agents, raUway station 

Agents, real estate 

Architects 

Authors 

Baggagemen 

Bakers 

Barbers, Hairdressers 

Bartenders 

Blacksmiths 

Boarding-house keepers 

BoUer-makers 

Bookkeepers 

Brakemen 

Brokers, commercial 

Brokers, stock 

Builders 

Butchers 



Cabinet-makers 

Candy-makers 

Canvassers 

Carpenters 

Carriage drivers 

Chambermaids 

Chauffeurs 

Chemists 

Cigarmakers 

Clay- and stone-workers 

Clergymen 

Clerks, store 

Clerks, other 

Collectors 

Cooks 

Commercial travelers 

Compositors 

Conductors, steam raUway 

Conductors, street railway 

Coopers 



Dairy farmers 

Deliverymen 

Dentists 

Designers 

Detectives, Marshals, etc. 

Domestics, general 

Draftsmen 

Dressmakers 

Druggists 

Dyers 

Editors 

Electricians 

Electrotypers, Stereotypers 

Elevator tenders 

Engineers, civil 

Locomotive 

Mining 

Stationary 
Engravers 
Express messengers 



8 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Farmers 
Filers, Grinders 
Firemen, fire department 

Locomotive 

Stationary 
Fishermen 

Foremen, manufacturing 
Foresters 
Fumacemen 
Gardeners, Florists 
Glassblowers 
Hatmakers 
Hostlers 
Hotelkeepers 
Housekeepers, Stewards 
Janitors 
Jewelers 
Laborers, domestic 

Farm 

Garden 

General 

Public Service 

Railroad 

Store 
Launderers (not in laundry) 
Lawyers, Judges 
Lithographers 
Longshoremen 
Lumbermen 



Machinists 

Mail carriers 

Mail clerks, railway 

Other 
Managers, manufacturing 
Manufacturers 
Masons, brick and stone 
Merchants, retail 

Wholesale 
Millers, grain, etc. 
Milliners 
Miners 

Molders, Founders 
Motormen 
Musicians 
Nurses, not trained 

Others, trained 
Officials, city 

State and U.S. 
Opticians 
Paperhangers 
Pattern-makers 
Photographers 
Physicians, Surgeons 
Plasterers 
Plumbers 
Policemen 
Porters (not store) 
Postmasters 



Pressmen, printing 

Professors, college 

Reporters 

Restaurant-keepers 

Roofers 

Sailors (U.S. Service) 

Others 
Salesmen, and saleswomen 
Saloon-keepers 
Sawyers 

Sewers (factory) 
Shoemakers (not factory) 
Showmen 
Soldiers- 
Stenographers 
Stonecutters 
Surgeons, veterinary 
Switchmen, Yardmen 
Tailors 
Teachers 
Teamsters 
Telegraph operators 
Telephone operators 
Tinsmiths 
Undertakers 
Upholsterers 
Watchmakers 
Waiters 



Of course il should be made clear to the students that this information is 
strictly confidential and will not be used in any personal connection whatsoever. 
It would be well at the outset to state to them the purpose of the investigation 
and the necessity of having accurate information. Their co-operation is 
necessary in securing it. 

In order to clarify any misunderstanding concerning the meanings of the 
questions, the card for a hypothetical case is filled out and accompanies this 
explanation. 

Be sure to allow the students sufiicient time to answer every question with 
care, even though it may be necessary in some cases to permit them to take 
the card home to consult the parents. 

Each card should be examined after the student has filled it out in order 
to correct any obvious errors and to see that all questions are answered. Your 
help in this way will be greatly appreciated. 

There were, however, some exceptions to the plan of procedure 
just outlined. The cards used in Seattle and St. Louis did not include 



SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 9 

the questions concerning the language spoken in the home and the 
country of the parent's birth. But they did include questions re- 
lating to student self-support, which were discarded in the latter part 
of the investigation. Also the inquiry about the telephone in the home 
was made only in Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon. In Seattle and St, 
Louis the father's occupation three years ago was requested for the 
purpose of determining the extent of occupational change during high- 
school attendance. In one of the Seattle high schools (the first in which 
the study was attempted) an effort was made to get definite information 
as to the father's income, but without success. The question was 
entirely too personal and was consequently dropped from the card lest 
it imperil the accuracy of the returns to the other questions. Also in 
the first Seattle high school the questions about brothers and sisters did 
not appear on the card, with the result that the returns on this item are 
not complete for the city of Seattle. In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon 
children did fill in the blank for the name, and there seemed to be no 
objection to it. In St. Louis and in four of the six Seattle schools this 
was not required of the students. In Mt. Vernon the set of instructions 
did^ot accompany the cards to the teachers. In view of the size of the 
school and the consequent greater intimacy of contact between the 
supervisory staff and the teacher, it was thought sufiicient to send to 
each teacher merely the card filled out for a hypothetical case. In 
concluding this enumeration of the exceptions to the general method of 
procedure, it should be pointed out that the cards used in the evening 
high school, the trade school, and the compulsory continuation classes 
in Bridgeport and the Mt. Vernon sixth grade were modified in each 
instance to meet the requirements of the situation. 

The facts for the children of high-school age at work in Seattle were 
obtained through personal interviews by investigators who went into 
all the commercial and industrial estabhshments of the city in which it 
was known that such children were at work. This was done through the 
co-operation of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce. For the most part 
the investigators were teachers in the public schools of the city. 

In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon the sociological data were supple- 
mented by inteUigence test records. In the former city the Chapman- 
Welles Junior- and Senior-High School Classification Test was given to 
the four groups of children already mentioned. To the compulsory 
continuation classes and the children in the trade school, the test was 
given by the writer, while the giving of the tests in the day and evening 
high schools was under the direction of high-school supervisors and 



lO 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



teachers who were more or less experienced in giving tests. In Mt. 
Vernon the National IntelHgence Tests, Scale B, Form I, were given by 
persons within the system. 

The data for the study were collected during the years ig^Q, 1920, 
and 192.J. The cards were filled out in the Seattle high schools at 
intervals during the months of November and December of 1919, and 
January of 1920. The children of high-school age at work in that city 
were interviewed during the Christmas vacation of the school year 
1919-20. The data from St. Louis were secured in December, 1920. 
In Bridgeport the cards for both the day and evening high schools and 
the continuation classes were filled out in December, 1920, and those for 
the trade school in February, 192 1. The intelligence tests were given 
there in December, 1920, and in January, February, and March, 1921. 
In Mt. Vernon the tests were administered in October, 1920, and the 
cards were filled out the following May (192 1). 



NUMBER OF CASES STUDIED 

In getting the returns from the high schools an effort was made to 
obtain responses from all children in attendance on that day. The 
number filling out the cards in each city is indicated in Table I. Thus 
for this basic part of the study there are 17,992 cases. Of the 8,264 
cases reported for the St. Louis high schools, 727, constituting the entire 
enrolment of one of the schools, are negroes. This very interesting 
group will receive special attention in a separate chapter. 

TABLE I 

Number and Sex of High-School Students Filling Out the Information Card 
IN Each of the Cities 



City 



Number of High-School Students 



Girls 



Boys 



Total 



Bridgeport. 
Mt. Vernon 
St. Louis. . 
Seattle 

TotaL . 



1 ,220 

4,462 
3,572 



1,037 

568 

3,802 

2,815 



2,257 
1,084 
8,264 
6,387 



9,770 



17,992 



The number of children in the special groups outside the regular 
day high school from whom information of a similar character was 
received is shown in Table II. No one of these groups is very large. 
Neither is any claim of complete returns made except for the trade 



SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 



II 



school and the Mt. Vernon sixth grade. In the other three cases the 
most that can be claimed is that random samplings have been secured. 
The number of children of high-school age at work in Seattle was certainly 

TABLE II 

Number and Sex of Children Filling Out the Information Card in Each of 
the non-hlgh-school groups 





Number of Children 


Group 


Girls 


Boys 


Total 


Children of high-school age at work in 
Seattle 


249 

147 

14 

305 
341 


265 

96 

184 

274 
398 


243 
198 , 

579 


Bridgeport Evening High School 

State Trade School at Bridgeport 

Bridgeport Compulsory Continuation 
Classes . 


Mt. Vernon Sixth Grade 


739 


Total 


1,056 


1,217 


2,273 



much greater than 514. In the Bridgeport Evening High School there 
were approximately one thousand students. Many of them were far 
beyond the high-school age. But only students twenty-one years of 
age or less were included in this study. Likewise returns were secured 
from only about 50 per cent of the children in the compulsory continu- 
ation classes. In each instance, however, those studied are thought to 
be quite representative of the group. 

TABLE III 
Number and Distribution of Children Taking the Intelligence Tests 





Number of Children 


Group 


Girls 


Boys 


Total 


Bridgeport High School 


1,362 

86 

9 

220 
192 


1,169 

95 
164 

201 
216 


2,531 


Bridgeport Evening High School 


181 


State Trade School at Bridgeport 

Bridgeport Compulsory Continuation 
Classes 


173 
421 


Mt. Vernon High School 


408 






Total 


1,869 


1,845 


3,714 







The groups to which the intelligence tests were administered were 
not completely identical with those for which the sociological data were 



12 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

secured, because some days or weeks or even months elapsed in each 
case between filling out the cards and taking the test, or vice versa. 
The number taking the test in each group is shown in Table III. It will 
be noted that in some cases the number taking the test is larger than 
the number filling out the cards, and in other cases the reverse is true. 
However, this is a matter of no importance when group results alone 
are wanted. 

ACCURACY 

The accuracy of the data is of course a matter of fundamental 
importance. Are the returns accurate or at least of such a character 
as to guarantee reliable conclusions ? Let us first consider the socio- 
logical data. 

The first question here pertains to the character of the informa- 
tion requested and the wording on the card. Is the high-school student 
in possession of the information asked for? He undoubtedly is, with 
the possible exception of the information relating to the father's owner- 
ship of the business in which he works. And even here, the responses 
to the other questions about the father's occupation make it possible in 
most cases to arrive at a reasonably satisfactory single result. Are the 
questions definite and do they call for specific information? Here 
again the answer is in the affirmative. Is there good reason for suspect- 
ing that the high-school student might color his replies to some of the 
questions ? Probably in some cases there would be a temptation to put 
a more favorable construction on the father's occupation than the facts 
would warrant. This temptation, however, was largely removed in St. 
Louis and in the four Seattle high schools where the student's name was 
not called for. Thus the returns from Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon may 
be checked against those from the other two cities. It is also highly 
probable that the average high-school student is over-optimistic about 
his prospects. Consequently little weight should be attached to his 
stated, intentions following graduation from high school, as an index of 
what he really is going to do. But, even so, as a statement of his 
intention, as an idea that occurred to him for a reason, it does in the 
writer's opinion have some validity. And no other claim for accuracy 
will be made regarding it during the course of the study. Did the 
students make a serious effort to fill out the cards and furnish the 
desired information ? They evidently did in the great majority of cases. 
It is true that in almost every high school one or two boys took the 
whole matter as a great joke and taxed their ingenuity to the limit to 
give the least possible bit of valuable information and the largest possible 



SOURCE AND COLLECTION OF THE DATA 13 

amount of nonsense. But, on the Vhole, the replies showed careful 
attention to the work in hand and a serious effort to co-operate in 
providing the information. 

A second general question pertains to the collection of the data. 
Is there any good reason for believing that the returns are from a 
selected group ? On the whole the answer is a negative one. In each 
high school, with the exception of the Soldan High School of St. Louis, 
the day on which the census was taken was a normal day and the cards 
were received from practically all the students in attendance. At the 
Soldan the cards were filled out the day before the Christmas vacation 
and there were many absent, particularly among the Seniors. Subse- 
quently an effort was made to complete the census, but evidently there 
was a considerable number of students in this high school from whom no 
cards were received. And it happens that incompleteness at this point 
has probably colored the returns from St. Louis to a small degree, 
because the Soldan High School serves a rather homogeneous and select 
middle-class constituency. It should therefore be remembered, when 
we note the social composition of the high-school population of St. Louis, 
that our figures do not give the non-labor groups as large a representatioil 
as they probably have. In collecting data from the non-high-school 
children there is no good reason for suspecting bias. For obvious 
reasons, in the case of the evening high school in Bridgeport, the study 
was limited to students of twenty-one years of age and under. Except in 
those cases where it is expressly stated to the contrary, the returns 
apparently are complete and unselected. 



CHAPTER III 
CHARACTER OF THE CITIES CHOSEN FOR THE STUDY 

Before going into an analysis of the results of the investigation, it 
will be well to examine briefly into the character of the cities from which 
the data were secured. This is a matter of prime importance in a study 
such as this one, in which the sociological interest is prominent. 

It has already been intimated that the study was not undertaken in 
these cities primarily because of their representative character. They 
were studied because they presented the opportunity. They were studied 
because it was possible to study them. Nevertheless an examination 
of the facts will show them to be fairly representative of the country. 

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL 

In Seattle we have a city of the Pacific Coast, representative of the 
North and the far West. St. Louis lies between the North and the South, 
and between the East and the West, exhibiting in some measure the 
characteristics of all. Bridgeport, an Atlantic seaport and industrial 
center, and Mt. Vernon, a growing community just outside the city of 
New York, stand for the East. To be sure, the real South is not ade- 
quately represented; neither is the Great Lakes region; nor the plains 
states. Furthermore, Boston and New England might not be satisfied 
with Bridgeport. But it must be admitted that these four cities do 
represent different parts of our country. 

No one of our cities can trace its history back to 1607 or 1620, although 
the city of Bridgeport does claim that there was a settlement of white 
people made in territory constituting the site of modern Bridgeport as 
early as 1639. It was not, however, until 1836 that the city was incorpo- 
rated. St. Louis is one of the oldest cities west of the Alleghanies, 
reaching back to the days of Marquette and Joliet and La Salle. It was 
incorporated as a city in 1822, and thus holds the distinction of having 
been the first city incorporated west of the Mississippi. Naturally the 
rise of Seattle came later as a part of the development of the Oregon 
country. Yet its date of incorporation goes back to i86g. Mt. Vernon, 
though possessing a considerable history as a town, did not become a 
city until 1892. 

14 



CHARACTER OF CITIES CHOSEN FOR STUDY 



15 



An examination of Table IV is of interest at this point. It shows the 
increase of population in each of the four cities from 1870 to 1920. 
The facts here presented reveal important and significant differences 
among the cities. Clearly they are not all of the same type. Fifty 
years ago St. Louis was a great urban center of more than 300,000 
inhabitants. Seattle, on the other hand, a city that likes to call itself 



TABLE IV 

Increase of Population in Each of the Four Cities from 1870 to 1920 



Year 



Bridgeport 



Mt. Vernon 



St. Louis 



Seattle 



1870 
1880 
1890 
1900 
1910 
1920 



18,969 

27,643 

48,866 

70,996 

102,054 

143,555 



2,700 

4,586 

10,830 

21,228 

30,919 

42,726 



310,864 
350,518 
451,770 
575,238 
687,029 
772,897 



1,107 

3,533 

42,837 

80,671 

237,194 

315,312 



the New York of the Pacific today, was at that time nothing but an 
assemblage of shacks about a trading post, housing scarcely more than 
a thousand souls. St. Louis has been growing gradually during this 
period, but not so rapidly as most American cities, while the growth of 
Seattle, especially during the decade from 1900 to 1910, has been nothing 
short of phenomenal. In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon we have two 
cities exhibiting the steady and rapid growth characteristic of industrial 
centers developing in the well-populated sections of our country during 
the last half-century. They are intermediate between Seattle and 
St. Louis. 

For the purposes of this study it is fortunate that we have cities 
showing these different rates of growth. In Seattle we find a vigorous, 
adventurous, and youthful population, composed of elements lured to 
this metropolis of the Northwest from the states to the east, and among 
whom the native son is rare indeed. Here society is less stable; the 
lines between social classes are not rigidly drawn. Everybody works. 
Seattle is not a city of magnificent residences. In St. Louis, on the other 
hand, we have an altogether different situation. The city is old, in 
American and middle western terms, and the population has not increased 
rapidly during the last generation. Society is more stable. The lines 
between classes are more closely drawn, although the people are less 
aware of those lines in St. Louis than in Seattle. Habit and custom 
have assumed their expected r61e. The old families do exist and St. Louis 



i6 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



does have its magnificent residences. It is a place in which to live as 
well as to work. These differences are of the largest significance for the 
study. 

THE PEOPLE 

A study of the people inhabiting these four cities shows us a popula- 
tion almost as varied and complex as that of the nation itself. In Table 
V are the facts pertaining to race and nationality as given in the latest 

TABLE V 

Racial and Ethnic Composition of the Populations of the Four Cities 
According to the Census of 19 io 



Race or Nationality 


Bridgeport 


Mt. Vernon 


St. Louis 


Seattle 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Native white (native 


27,156 

37,314 

36,180 

1,332 

72 


26.6 

36.6 

3S-S 

1 .2 

. I 


11,433 

10, 539 

8,029 

896 

22 


37.0 

340 

26.0 

2.9 

.1 


269,836 

246 , 946 
125,706 
43,960 

S8i 


39-2 

35.9 

18.4 
6.4 

.1 


105,784 

61,134 

60,835 

2,296 

7,14s 




Native white (foreign and 

mixed parentage) 

Foreign-born white 


25.8 
25.6 

I.O 


Indians, Chinese, Japanese, 








Total 


102,054 


100. 


30,919 


100. 


687,029 


100. 


237,194 


100. 







available census, that of 19 10. A glance at this table is illuminating. 
Bridgeport is one of the most foreign of American cities with onl y_26.6 
per cent of its inhabitants reported as native white of native parentage. 
Practically the entire remainder is either foreign born or of foreign and 
mixed parentage, since the colored races have but a negligible representa- 
tion. At the other extreme is Seattle which is one of the least foreign 
of our cities with 44.6 per cent of its inhabitants of native white parentage. 
In St. Louis is found a different situation. The native white stock is 
w^l represented, as is also the native white of foreign and mixed parent- 
age; whereas the proportion offoreign-ljorn white is the lowest for the 
four cities, and is decidedly low for the larger American cities. Mt. 
Vernon presents no distinctive features. Finally it should be noted 
that St. Louis has a good representation of\i|egroes, while the Orientals, 
particularly the Chinese and the Japanese, constitute an important 
element in the population of Seattle. 

But how are the different immigrant strains represented ? Do we 
find both the "old" and the "new" immigration? In Table VI is the 
answer. Here the immigrants and native whites of foreign parentage 
are grouped according to the country from which they or both their 



CHARACTER OF CITIES CHOSEN FOR STUDY 



17 



parents have come. Again each of the cities presents individual features. 
In Bridgeport the most numerous immigrant group comes from that 
polyglot section of Europe formerly known as the Austro-Hungarian 
Empire; in Mt. Vernon the Italians hold first place; in St. Louis almost 
one-half of the immigrants are of German stock; while in Seattle the 
immigrants from the Scandinavian countries constitute the largest 
single group, as classified. In so far as the immigrant population is 

TABLE VI 

Nativity of Foreign-born Whites and Parents of Native Whites of Foreign 
Parentage in the Four Cities (1910) 



Country 



Bridgeport 



Number 



Per- 
centage 



Mt. Vernon 



Number 



Per- 
centage 



St. Louis 



Number 



Per- 
centage 



Seattle 



Number 



Per- 
centage 



Austria-Hungary 

Canada 

Great Britain . . . 

Germany 

Ireland 

Italy 

Russia 

Scandinavia. . . . . 
All others 

Total 



16,883 
2,002 
6,383 
6,136 

13,070 
7,420 
6,242 
3,725 
3,437 



426 

345 

1,367 

3,924 

2,403 

4,371 

933 

537 

1 ,112 



2.8 

2.2 

8.9 

25-5 

15.6 

28.3 

6.0 

3-5 

7.2 



28,377 

3,138 

11,270 

138,094 

41,326 

11,360 

23,868 

2,926 

28,350 



2,901 
14,317 
13,025 
13,898 
7,294 
4,399 
3,513 
28,353 
12,209 



2.9 
143 
130 
13-9 

7-3 . 

4-4 

3-5 
28,5 
12.2 



65,298 



15,418 100.0 



4,709 



99,909 



concerned, Seattle represents the ''old" immigration, the immigration 
from the north and west of Europe, with only 10.8 per cent from Austria- 
Hungary, Italy, and Russia. In St. Louis, which is also predominantly 
a center for the "old" immigration, 22 per cent of its immigrants are 
from these three countries of the south and east of Europe. In Mt. 
Vernon this percentage rises to 37.1;* and in Bridgeport to 46.7. Thus 
it is clear that from the standpoint of race and nationality these four 
cities give a fairly complete picture of urban America. 



OCCUPATIONS 

For the purposes of this study perhaps the most important informa- 
tion about the population pertains to the occupations. In what occupa- 
tions are the people of these four cities engaged ? The facts on this 
point, according to the census of 1910, are found in Table VII. An 
examination of this table shows the variety of occupational interest 
characteristic of American cities. Of the nine great occupational 
divisions recognized by the census the seven which might be expected 
in urban communities are proportionately represented in these four 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



cities. To be sure, the percentage of persons engaged in public service, 
according to the census classification, is quite small in each case, but this 
is characteristic of cities generally. Although American cities are as a 
rule predominantly industrial, and although the cities here studied are 
no exceptions to this rule, yet the table shows marked differences among 
them in the proportion of the inhabitants engaged in the manufacturing 
and mechanical occupations. At the one extreme is Bridgeport with over 
60 per cent of its people so engaged, and at the other is Seattle with 
scarcely more than 30 per cent. St. Louis occupies a middle ground. 

TABLE VII 

Total Number of Persons Ten Years of Age or Over Engaged in Each 
Specified Occupation in Each of the Four Cities (rgio) 



Occupational Division 


Bridgeport 


Mt. Vernon 


St. Louis 


Seattle 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Number 


Per- 
centage 


Agriculture, forestry, and 

animal husbandry 

Extracting of minerals 

Manufacturing and me- 
chanical industry 


477 
26 

30,696 

2,788 

5,053 

681 

2,259 

4,531 
3,407 


I.O 

.1 

61 .4 
5.6 

10. 1 
1.4 
4-5 

9.1 

6.8 


120 
20 

4,147 
939 

2,330 
169 

1,173 

2,107 
1,347 


1.0 
.2 

33.6 
7.6 

18.9 
1-3 
9.5 

17.0 
10.9 


2,203 
1,621 

133,151 

28,079 

54,117 

5,858 

15,952 

46,288 
33,445 


.7 

• 5 

41-5 
8.7 

16.9 
1.8 
50 

14. S 

10.4 


4,460 
1,915 

39,639 

17,116 

20,266 

2,585 

8,762 

17,289 
10,253 


1.6 

32.4 
14.0 


Trade 


16.6 




2.1 


Professional service 

Domestic and personal 


7.2 
14.1 


Clerical occupations 


8.4 


Total 


49,918 


100. 


12,352 


100. 


320,714 


100.0 


122,28s 


100. 







The range here presented is almost as great as that to be found among 
the larger American cities. Bridgeport is an industrial center of the 
clearest type, while Seattle is a community with a greater variety of 
interests, in which industrial development is in its earlier stages. In 
the latter city there are almost as many persons engaged in trade and 
transportation as in industry. This is to be expected in a great seaport 
in which the commercial interest is naturally very large. The table 
shows important differences in the proportion of the populations engaged 
in the other occupations, but enough has been said to make it clear that 
these four cities are fairly representative of American cities with respect 
to occupational interests. 

A slight additional comment of a more specific nature concerning the 
character of the industrial undertakings in each of the four cities will 
be of value, because of the dominant role played by industry in the 
American city. To an appreciable degree industry gives the city its tone. 



CHARACTER OF CITIES CHOSEN FOR STUDY 19 

Almost every conceivable thing is manufactured in Bridgeport 
from collar buttons to field artillery. Its most important products are 
corsets; foundry and machine-shop products; electrical machinery and 
supplies of all sorts; cutlery and tools; and copper, tin, and sheet-iron 
products. In addition, the people of Bridgeport make automobiles, 
carriages, cigars, bicycles, boots and shoes, carpets, firearms, paint, 
patent medicines, hosiery, sewing machines, silverware, typewriters, and 
a host of other things. Mt. Vernon is largely a place of residence for 
persons working in New York City. Yet there are several concerns 
engaged in the manufacture of motor vehicles, optical instruments, 
silver products, shirt waists, etc. St. Louis manufactures a great 
variety of goods. The products in whose manufacture the largest 
numbers of workers are engaged ar e bo ots and sjioes; printing and 
publishing; men's and women's clothing; foundry and machine-shop 
products; furniture; lumber and timber products; carriages and wagons; 
pottery and terra cotta; stoves and furnaces; copper, tin, and sheet-iron 
products; and in a happier day great quantities of liquors and stimulating 
beverages. Seattle, though less given to manufacture, does produce 
many things. Quite naturally first among them are lumber and timber 
products. Others are foundry and machine-shop products; confection- 
ery; copper, tin, and sheet-iron products; flour and grist-mill products; 
and furniture. There are also a goodly number of persons engaged in 
printing and publishing; the slaughtering and meat-packing industries 
are developing; and during the war Seattle developed into a great 
shipbuilding center. 

VALUE OP PROPERTY 

No picture of a city is complete without some reference to the 
value of its property. This is especially true in any study of public 
education, an enterprise dependent on taxation for support. 

According to a special report of the census in 1919 the estimated 
true value of property per capita in St. Louis was $1,497.85, while the 
average for the group of American cities having over 500,000 inhabitants, 
the group to which St. Louis belongs, was $1,584.51. The corresponding 
figures for Seattle were $1,630.88 and $1,617.88; for Bridgeport, 
$1,592.05 and $1,353.25; and for Mt. Vernon, $ 1,28 6.28 and $1,234.30. 
According to these estimates, no one of the four cities represents either 
of the extremes of wealth or of poverty. With the exception of St. 
Louis, they are slightly above the average for cities of their class, but 
the superiority is not marked in any case. All appear to be cities of 
moderate wealth. 



20 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AND CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE 

A final question and one most significant for this study pertains to 
the high school itself in these four cities. What proportion of the 
children of high-school age (taken somewhat arbitrarily in this study to 
include all children from fourteen to seventeen years of age) are enrolled 
in the high school? The facts bearing on this point appear in Table 
VIII in which is given the estimated number of children of high-school 

TABLE VIII 

^Number of Children of High-School Age, Number of Children in the Public 
High Schools, and Percentage of Children of High-School Age in the 
Public High Schools in Each of the Four Cities and in the United States 
in 1918 



Children of high-school age. 
Children in public high 

schools 

Percentage of children in 

public high schools 



Bridgeport 


Mt. Vernon 


St. Louis 


Seattle 


10,618 


3,169 


59,324 


23,368 


1,990 


I ,010 


10,586 


6,719 


18.7 


319 


17.8 


28.8 



United States 
8^i053_,872 

1,645,171 

20.4 



age in each of the cities and in the nation in 1918, the number of children 
enrolled in the public high schools according to the report of the Bureau 
of Education for the school year 191 7-18, and the percentage that the 
latter is of the former. No claim is made of absolute accuracy for these 
figures, but they are unquestionably approximately correct. 

The table shows that two of the cities (Bridgeport and St. Louis) 
have a somewhat smaller proportion of their children of high-school age 
in the public high school than the country as a whole; whereas, the 
other two (Mt. Vernon and Seattle) are markedly above the average 
practice for the nation. Seattle's record is particularly noteworthy in 
a city of more than 300,000 inhabitants. In fact there are few cities 
as large as Seattle having so large a proportion of their children of high- 
school age in high school. This diversity of practice in a matter which 
lies at the heart of this study is of large value and reference to this 
table will be made in later chapters in connection with the analysis and 
interpretation of the results of the investigation. 



PART II. ANALYSIS OF THE DATA 

CHAPTER IV 
PARENTAL OCCUPATION— CLASSIFICATION 

Occupation is the central fact in the lives of the great masses of 
people. It is the interest that occupies the time and energy of the 
ordinary person for the major part of his waking hours. In large 
measure it determines his place of residence, his associates during the 
working-day, and his more intimate acquaintances and friends of the 
leisure moments. If pursued for years, it will set its mark on his physical 
nature and will stamp his mind with its special pattern. It will deter- 
mine to a considerable degree what he does, what he thinks, and his 
outlook on life. Increasingly, it seems, a man's occupation in this 
complex world determines his political affiliations. Consequently this 
part of the study, setting forth the relation of parental occupation to 
high-school attendance, may be regarded as its most important contri- 
bution. 

CLASSIFICATION OF OCCUPATION 

The first task encountered as soon as the tabulation of the data 
commenced was a classification of occupations significant for the purposes 
of the study. The classification used by the census, recognizing nine 
great occupational divisions, was inadequate, since it fails to distinguish 
the various grades of occupations within an industry, due to large-scale 
production and specialization of function. For example, the division 
of "manufacturmg and mechanical industries" includes in one group 
those who own the industries, those who manage them, those engaged 
as technicians, and those who perform the manual labor involving varying 
degrees of skill. All persons concerned with the production of a par- 
ticular commodity are grouped together. For the purposes of the census 
this classification is undoubtedly satisfactory, but for the purposes of 
this study it is as clearly unsatisfactory. 

The ideal classification would be Taussig's famous classification into 
the five non-competing groups, viz., professional, semi-professional, 
skilled, semi-skilled, and unskilled occupations. And at the outset of 
the investigation this classification was chosen, but as the work pro- 
ceeded it was abandoned. The reasons for this were several. As already 



22 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

indicated this classification is ideal, but it was found exceedingly difficult 
to use. The lines between the groups are not clearly defined in industry, 
to say the least. The division between the skilled and the unskilled is 
certainly no longer altogether clear. However, with relatively complete 
information for each case, this classification could be attempted with some 
measure of success; but with the relatively meager information obtained 
in this study, it was found unworkable without resorting to many 
arbitrary decisions. It was therefore decided to abandon the attempt 
at the ideal and adopt a classification that would not give the impression 
of greater accuracy than the facts would warrant. 

The classification finally adopted takes the census classification as 
a basis, but goes considerably further by breaking up the more complex 
groups and recognizing certain other groups running directly across the 
great occupational divisions of the census. The aim is to get classes 
of reasonable homogeneity from the standpoint of social status, position 
in the economic order, and intellectual outlook. The result is not 
altogether satisfactory, and it is far from the ideal, but facts to be 
presented later show the classification to possess some merit. The 
groups recognized are as follows: 

I. Proprietors. — Bankers, brokers, druggists, hotel-owners, landlords 
laundry-owners, lumbermen, manufacturers, merchants, mine- 
owners, publishers, shopkeepers, undertakers, etc. 

II. Professional service. — Actors, architects, artists, authors, cartoonists, 
clergymen, dentists, engineers (civil, chemical, electrical, mechanical, 
mining), journalists, la\\yers, librarians, musicians, pharmacists, 
photographers, physical directors, physicians, social workers, 
surgeons, teachers, etc. 

III. Managerial service. — Agents (express, railroad, steamship, telegraph), 

contractors, foremen, managers, officials and inspectors (private), 
officials and inspectors (public), superintendents, etc. 

IV. Commercial service. — Agents (real estate and insurance), buyers, clerks 

in stores, commercial travelers, salesmen, etc. 

V. Clerical service. — Accountants, bookkeepers, canvassers, cashiers, clerks 
(except in stores), collectors, etc. 

\'I. Agricultural service. — Dairymen, farmers, fruit-growers, gardeners, 
nurserymen, ranchmen, stock-raisers, etc. 

VII. Artisan-proprietors. — All artisans who own the shops in which they 
work, including bakers, barbers, blacksmiths, cabinet-makers, 
cleaners and dyers, cobblers, draftsmen, electricians, machinists, 
milliners, plumbers, printers, tailors, tinners, etc. 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION— CLASSIFICATION 23 

VIII. Building and related trades. — Cabinet-makers, carpenters, electricians, 
glaziers, lathers, masons, plasterers, plumbers, sheet-metal workers, 
structural iron workers, etc. 

IX. Machine and related trades. — Anglesmiths, blacksmiths, coppersmiths, 
designers, draftsmen, engineers (stationary), firemen (except loco- 
motive and fire department), forgemen, founders, machinists, 
mechanics, millwrights, molders, pattern-makers, tinsmiths, tool- 
makers, etc. 
X. Printing trades. — Bookbinders, compositors, electrotypers, engravers, 
linotypers, pressmen, printers, typesetters, etc. 

XI. Miscellaneous trades in manufacturing and mechanical industries. — 
Bakers, bottlers, brewers, cigar-makers, cobblers, coopers, corset- 
cutters, cutlers, dyers, glass-blowers, grinders, meat-cutters, milliners, 
platers, shoe-cutters, tailors, tanners, weavers, etc., and machine 
operatives. 
XII. Transportation service. — Baggagemen, brakemen, chauffeurs, conductors, 
draymen, engineers (locomotive and marine), firemen (locomotive 
and marine), longshoremen, mail carriers, mariners, motormen, 
sailors, switchmen, yardmen, etc. 

XIII. Public service. — Detectives, firemen (fire department), guards, marines, 

marshals, policemen, sailors, soldiers, watchmen, etc. 

XIV. Personal service. — Barbers, chefs, cooks, doorkeepers, janitors, laun- 

derers, porters, sextons, waiters, etc. 
XV. Miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen. 
XVI. Common labor. 
XVII. Occupation unknown. 

The first group, the proprietors, includes all the owners of enterprises 
in whatever field, except the farmers and certain small owners put into 
Class VII among whom ownership is really secondary to the practice 
of some skUled trade. This group is the most powerful occupational 
group in any American community; its members constitute the backbone 
of the chambers of commerce and similar organizations; it occupies a 
strategic position in a society based on private property and it controls 
economic power. In criticism of this classification, it may be said that 
ther- is an exceedingly wide range among proprietors. Small shop- 
keepers are classed with captains of industry and owners of great wealth. 
There is without question some justice in this criticism, and in the early 
part of the investigation an effort was made to divide this group into 
"large" and "small" proprietors. But it was necessary to abandon 
this effort because of the practical impossibility of introducing this 



24 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

distinction with the available data. Nevertheless ownership does give 
a certain security even though the business is small. It also gives an 
outlook on life. While there is superficial heterogeneity, there is 
fundamental homogeneity throughout the group. 

The second group, professional service, requires little comment. 
It is perhaps in all respects the most homogeneous group in the classifica- 
tion. Its membership is the most "learned" in the community. 

In the third group are placed all those persons except owners, who 
perform any managerial or directing function in all enterprises, whether 
of a public or private character. In the ordinary industrial organiza- 
tion it includes everything from foreman up to superintendent. 

All persons who are active in the buying or selling of goods, except 
owners, are placed in the fourth group, commercial service. Real 
estate and insurance agents are all included in this class, even though 
they are said to be owners or part owners of the business, because in 
most cases ownership may mean nothing more than the renting of an 
ofl6ce. The function performed is that of salesman. 

The fifth and sixth divisions require no explanation. Clerical 
service is rather clearly defined. Agricultural service includes owners, 
tenants, and laborers. It is, however, a small group in any city and is 
foreign to the urban economy. 

The seventh division, labeled the artisan-proprietors, covers a group 
of occupations which are really reminiscent of an earlier economic order. 
Toward the beginning of this study these occupations were not recog- 
nized as a separate group, but, as case after case appeared in which the 
artisan owned his shop, it became clear that some separate provision 
should be made for them. 

The eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh divisions include all skilled 
and semi-skilled workers in the manufacturing and mechanical in- 
dustries. The first three are among the most homogeneous groups in 
the entire classification, each being composed of a series of rather closely 
related and well-known trades. The fourth is a sort of an omnibus class 
into which all the remaining occupations in this rather broad field, 
including the machine operatives, are placed. It partakes more of the 
nature of the semi-skilled trades than any other group in the classifica- 
tion. 

The twelfth division includes practically all of the workers in the 
field of transportation and is consequently a rather heterogeneous 
class. The group ranges from longshoremen to railroad engineers and 
conductors. But since the group is not large in any city it was thought 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION— CLASSIFICATION 25 

unwise to further complicate the classification through the recognition 
of another division. 

The last five divisions require little comment. The meaning of 
public service is clear and the same may be said of personal service. 
The fifteenth division is quite heterogeneous, including the workers in 
mining, lumbering, and fishing, but it hardly exists in our cities. In the 
skteenth division are placed all common laborers from whatever field. 
It includes all apprentices and helpers, and is as nearly unskilled as any 
group to be found in modern society. And finally, in the seventeenth 
and last division, are found all cases in which the father's occupation 
was not given or in which the data were so meager or indefinite as to 
make classification impossible. 

The data analyzed and interpreted in the following chapters are 
based on the foregoing classification. In every case where information 
was given the student was placed in that division to which his father's 
occupation belongs, even though the father was unemployed at the time, 
retired for any reason, or not living. In case the father's occupation 
was not given and the occupation of the guardian was, the classification 
follows the latter. In no instance was the mother's occupation used for 
this purpose, even though information concerning both the father and 
guardian was lacking. This policy is based upon the assumption that 
the father's occupation is of real significance in determining the social 
status and outlook of the child almost regardless of whether he is working 
at the time or not; and that the occupation of the mother is of little 
importance in this respect. She does what she is able to do, when it is 
necessary for her to support her children, and the opportunities open 
to her are limited. 

It should be repeated that the occupational classification outlined 
in this chapter is not ideal in theory, and in practice is less so. In the 
first place it is extraordinarily difficult to classify occupations today, 
because the lines between them are not clearly drawn in the economic 
order and occupations are being formed and reformed in an evolutionary 
series. The profound changes ushered into industry with the advent of 
power-driven machinery, marked concentration of labor, and minute 
specialization have not run their full course. In the second place, in 
some cases the information given by the student was not so clear as 
might be desired. These difficulties and shortcomings should not be 
forgotten while reading the following chapters. 



CHAPTER V 



PARENT.4L OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 

In this chapter will be presented the facts showing the occupations 
of the fathers or guardians of 17,265 students in the high schools of the 
four cities. This number does not include the 727 colored children in 
the Sumner High School in St. Louis, which will receive special treat- 
ment in a separate chapter. In interpreting these facts attention will 
be directed to the number of persons in the general population engaged 
in the different occupations. 

OCCUPATIONAL COMPOSITION OF THE HIGH-SCHOOL POPULATION 

The gross data are given in Table IX. All four high-school years 
are combined. It will be observed that of the 17,265 students, 3,427 
have fathers who are occupied as proprietors, 1,629 have fathers engaged 
in some sort of professional service, and so on. 

TABLE IX 

Occupations of the Fathers or Guardians of 17,265 Students in the High 

Schools of Four Cities — All Four Years Combined — 

1919-20, 1920-21 





Number 


Percentage 


Parental Occupation 


Bridge- 
port 


Mt. 
Vernon 


St. 
Louis 


Seattle 


Total 


i 


a 


c 


'3 





Total 


Proprietors 

Professional service. . . . 

Managerial service 

Commercial service. . . . 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service. . . . 

Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades .. . 
Transportation service . 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber- 


451 
137 
38s 
163 
98 

49 

III 

116 

318 

7 

139 

77 

57 

52 


304 

128 

181 

122 

67 

II 

S6 

57 

25 

4 

32 

26 

9 

6 

I 
18 
37 


1,603 
661 

1,228 
818 
550 
63 
398 
428 
432 
no 

362 

397 
III 
81 

5 
69 

221 


1,069 

703 

1,052 

534 

281 

293 

158 

724 

452 

65 

121 

346 

93 

99 

60 
88 
249 


3,427 

1,629 

2,846 

1,637 

996 

416 

723 

1,325 

1,227 

186 

654 

846 

270 

238 

66 
213 
566 


20.0 
6.1 

17. 1 
7.2 

4-3 
2.2 
4.9 
S-l 
14. 1 

6:^2 
3.4 
2.5 
2.3 

1-7 
2.6 


28.0 

II. 8 

16.7 

II-3 

6.2 

1 .0 

5-2 

5.3 
2.3 

.4 

3.0 

2.4 

.8 

.5 

.1 
1.6 

3-4 


21 
8 
16 
10 

7 

5 
5 
5 

X 

4 
5 
I 

I 


3 
8 
3 
9 
3 
8 
3 
7 
7 
4 
8 
3 
4 
I 

I 
9 


16.7 
II. I 

16. s 

8.3 

4.4 
4.6 
2.5 

II. 3 
7.1 
I.O 

1.9 

5-4 
i-S 
1.5 

• 9 
1-4 
3-9 


19. 8«^ 

9-4'^ 
16. s>^ 

9.5*^ 

5-8 

2.4 

4.2 

7.7 

7.1 

i.i 

3.8 

4-9 

1.6 

1.4 

■ 4 
1.2 
3-2 


Common labor 

Unknown 


38 
59 






Total 


2,257 


1,084 


7,537 


6,387 


17.265 


100. 


100. 


100. 


100. 


100. 



For comparative purposes the reader should pass to the second part 
of this table in which the facts are given in percentages. A glance at 

26 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 27 

the percentages for the four cities combined shows four non-labor groups 
in the lead in the following order: first, the proprietors; second, mana- 
gerial service ; third, commercial service ; and fourth, professional service. 
Among the labor groups only two could be said to be well represented, 
namely, the building trades and the machine trades. The printing 
trades, pubhc service, personal service, miners, lumber-workers, fisher- 
men, and common labor have a negligible representation. But 3.2 per 
cent of the cases are classified as unknown. This means that satisfactory 
information was received from practically all of the students. 

An examination of the remainder of the table, giving the facts for 
the individual cities, shows considerable variation in the character of 
the high-school population from city to city. Thus the percentage of 
proprietors ranges from 16.7 in Seattle to 28.0 in Mt. Vernon; that of 
professional people from 6j[ in Bridgeport to il.$ in Mt. Vernon; that 
of agricultural workers from .8 in St. Louis to 4.6 in Seattle; that of 
persons engaged in the building trades from 5.1 in Bridgeport to 11.3 
in Seattle; that of those working in the machine trades from 2.3 in Mt. 
Vernon to 14. i in Bridgeport. It is interesting, on the other hand, to 
note the constancy of the representation of managerial service, the 
percentage ranging merely from 16.3 in St. Louis to 17.1 in Bridgeport, a 
range of less than__i per cent. The differences in the character of the 
high-school population are to be explained either in terms of the special 
occupational and industrial interests of the four cities or in terms of the 
proportion of children of high-school age enrolled in the high school. 
For example, the first explanation accounts for the very large proportion 
of students in the Bridgeport High School whose fathers are engaged in 
the machine trades. Because of the nature of Bridgeport's industries 
an exceptionally large number of her workers are machinists. Conse- 
quently the number of machinists' children in the high school is unusually 
large. As a matter of fact, there is evidence to indicate that the machin- 
ists of Seattle send a much larger percentage of their children to high 
school than do those of Bridgeport. The relatively large proportion of 
children in the Mt. Vernon High School coming from the non-labor groups 
is also to be explained in terms of the character of the adult population. 
As aheady pointed out, Mt. Vernon is largely a residential city for 
middle-class folk haying business in New York City. Differences in 
occupational and industrial interests, however, do not account for the 
appreciably larger representation of the proprietors in the St. Louis than 
in the Seattle schools. The second explanation is pertinent here. 
In the adult population there is actually a larger proportion of proprietors 



28 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

in Seattle than in St. Louis. But since the St. Louis schools attract a 
much smaller percentage of the children of high-school age, her high- 
school population is more highly selected, containing fewer children from 
the laboring classes and a larger proportion from the well-to-do groups. 
Many other interesting differences will be noted by the careful reader 
who examines the table. 

A more concrete picture of the high-school population is presented 
in Table X, in which are given the probable occupations of the fathers 
or guardians of one hundred high-school students taken at random from 
the high-school populations of the four cities. If all the students in 
these high schools should be transported to the same place, and if the 
reader, happening to arrive at that place, should make inquiry of the first 
one hundred young people encountered regarding the parental occupa- 
tion, he would get a result not very different from that presented in this 
table. The writer is of the opinion further that a similar sampling of the 
high-school populations of four other representative American cities 
would yield a corresponding result, because of the fundamental similarity 
of populations and conditions from city to city. To be sure, the exact 
occupations here given would not all appear, although a surprisingly 
large number of them would, but the general impression conveyed would 
be about the same. Thus, instead of a hotelkeeper there might be an 
additional grocer; among the professional people there might be several 
physicians, and no civil engineer or architect; and in the place of the 
painter there might appear a sheet-metal worker. In constructing this 
table individual occupations were necessarily selected somewhat arbitra- 
rily in a good many instances, since it was necessary to choose from 
several occupations, no one of which occurred as frequently as once 
among every one hundred high-school students. For example, the 
occupation of railroad conductor, or that of street-car motorman might 
have been selected instead of that of locomotive engineer. The merest 
glance through the table will show many more cases where the same 
method was necessarily followed and where the same criticism is perti- 
nent. The larger occupational divisions, however, would probably 
appear in any large and representative high-school population just 
about as they do here. 

COMPARISON WITH THE ADULT POPULATION 

The analysis of the high-school population just presented gives 
the impression that the laboring classes do not constitute the prepon- 
derant element in the public high school. The reader also, in all proba- 
bility, carries the impression from everyday experience that in the 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT ' 



29 



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'3 


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•c 

Q 




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u 

2 






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u 

< 


3 i-i 

2 3 

1- 


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(1) t/i c: 

bc y a 
|faU 


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3 4-1 

< bO 

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l-H 


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■I-' M 

aj <u 
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3 

u 

3 

M 

u 


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cq 


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2 




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^ 3 
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S 3 

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30 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



ordinary American city a large proportion of the population, if not a 
majority, are manual laborers. An attempt will now be made to 
discover the relation between the representation of each of the occupa- 
tional groups in the general population and its representation in the 
high school. 

The problem is complicated somewhat because of the well-known 
fact that certain of the occupations are carried on in large measure by 
young people. This is true of the clerical occupations, for example, 
certain commerical occupations, many of the miscellaneous trades, 
common labor, and others. Obviously it would not do therefore to 
compare the number of children in high school from a certain occupa- 
tional group with the total number of persons engaged in that set of 
occupations. The occupation recruiting its ranks largely from persons 
on the youthful side of middle Ufe could not possibly have a large propor- 
tion of children of high-school age. In attacking the problem two 
things are necessary: first, a knowledge of the age of the fathers of 
high-school students; and second, a knowledge of the number of men 
of this age to be found in each group of occupations. 

The first of these two tasks is an easy one. It would not be difficult 
to make a rough estimate of the probable age-distribution of the fathers 
of high-school students from our knowledge of biological laws. It is 
not necessary to rely on such an a priori judgment, however, since the 
facts were obtained from the entire student population of one of the 
large Seattle high schools. Table XI is derived from the data furnished 
by these students. According to these figures an age-period of twenty 
years, the period from 40 to 6o', includes over 80 per cent of the fathers ; 
and the median age is 48.5 years. Since this particular high school 
draws its student body from no special social class, facts from other 
communities would probably parallel these rather closely. 



TABLE XI 

Probable Age-Distribution of the Fathers of 1,000 High-School Students 

Derived from Data Given by 1,391 Students in Lincoln 

High School, Seattle 



Age-Period 


30-4 


35-9 


40-4 


4S-9 


SO-4 


SS-9 


60-4 


6s-9 


70-4 


7S-9 


Total 


Median 


Number. 


7 


83 


218 


278 


229 


102 


59 


17 


5 


2 


1,000 


48. 5 





The second task, involving the determination of the number of men 
of the foregoing ages in these cities engaged in each set of occupations. 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 31 

is not so easy. In the first place, the occupational census for 1920 is 
not yet available. It is therefore necessary to place reliance on the 
data presented in the previous census, that of 1910. It is improbable, 
however, that the occupational distribution of the population in any 
city has changed in any marked degree during the past ten years. 
Consequently this may not be regarded as a source of serious error. 

In the second place the age-periods recognized in the occupational 
census are not exactly the periods that would be most serviceable for 
this study. Furthermore, in the distribution of occupations by age- 
periods, the facts are not given for all occupations nor for all cities, but 
only for certain selected calUngs in each of the cities of more than 
100,000 inhabitants. The only complete occupational census includes 
in a single figure the entire number of males over ten years of age pursuing 
each occupation. Thus for Bridgeport, St. Louis, and Seattle the num- 
ber of males engaged in certain selected occupations is given by the 
following age-periods: ten to thirteen years; fourteen to fifteen; sixteen 
to twenty; twenty-one to forty-four; and forty-five years and over. 

In view of these facts it was decided to merely make the best possible 
estimate of the number of males over forty-five years of age in each of 
the four cities engaged in each of the occupational divisions used in 
this study. This was done by first tabulating the total number of males 
over ten years of age to be found in each of these divisions in each of the 
four cities. Then, for each of the three larger cities, the selected occupa- 
tions, for which the detailed age-distribution was given, were arranged 
under the classification used here, and the proportion of males over 
forty-five years of age was noted. The results of this calculation are 
given in Table XII. The wide range in the proportion of workers in 
the various occupations who are over forty-five years of age is at once 
apparent. At the one extreme are the managerial occupations in which 
36 per cent of the workers are in this age-group; at the other are the 
clerical pursuits in which this percentage is but 14. 

Perhaps the reader has already observed that two of the occupational 
divisions used in our classification do not appear in Table XII, namely, 
agricultural service and the artisan-proprietors. The first was not 
included because the agricultural occupations do not constitute a 
normal part of the fife of the city. Many of the high-school students 
from this source are hving in the city for the purpose of attending school. 
There is consequently no natural relation between the number of children 
in the high school whose fathers are engaged in these occupations and 
the number of adults so engaged, according to the census. The artisan- 



32 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

proprietors were omitted from this table, because in the census report 
they are not distinguished from the retail dealers and the manufacturers 
on the one hand and the artisans on the other. 

TABLE XII 

Percentage of Males Engaged in Each Occupation Who Are 
Forty-five Years of Age and Over, Derived from the 
Census Figures for Selected Occupations in Bridgeport, 
St. Louis, and Seattle (1910) 



Occupation 



Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 
Common labor 



Percentage Forty- 
five Years or Over 



35 
28 

14 
27 
24 
16 
17 
17 
30 
18 
20 
20 



Going back now to the total number of males over ten years of age 
engaged in each set of occupations in the four cities and applying the 
percentages given in Table XII, it is possible to approximate the actual 
number of men over forty-five to be found in these pursuits in 1910. This 
figure, along with the number of high-school students whose fathers or 
guardians are engaged in the same occupations, is given in Table XIII. 
The relation between these two sets of figures is also given in this table 
in terms of the number of students in the high schools of these four 
cities from each occupational group for every 1,000 men over forty-five 
engaged in the same occupations. This relation is really the final 
object of this rather extended series of computations and calculations. 

This table shows very clearly that certain of the occupational groups 
have a much better representation in the high school than others in 
proportion to their representation in that part of our population in which 
the fathers of children of high-school age are found. Since these same 
facts are presented graphically in Figure 2, the reader's time will be 
economized by directing his attention to it at once. A hasty survey 
of the diagram showg that the laboring groups suffer in the comparison, 



PARENT.\L OCCUPATION AND TOT.\L ENROLMENT 



33 



TABLE XIII 

Estimated Number of Men Forty-five Years of Age and Over Engaged in 
Each Set of Occupations in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and 
Seattle (1910); Number of Hi^h-School Students Whose Fathers or 
Guardians Are Engaged in Each Set of Occupations in the Same 
Cities, According to Studies Made in 1919-20 and 1920-21; and Number 
OF the Latter for Every 1,000 of the Former for Each Set of Occupations 



Parental Occupation 


Men Forty-five 

Years of Age 

and Over 


Students in 
High School 


Number in 
High School for 

Every 1,000 
Men Forty-five 
Years and Over 


Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 


11,135 

4,520 
7,120 
6,682 
4,558 
9,872 
7,681 

845 
7,881 

5,793 
1,560 

4,941 

1,142 

12,429 


3,799 
1,629 
2,846 

1,637 
996 

1,433 
1,300 
186 
809 
850 
270 
249 
66 
213 


341 
360 
400 

245 . 
219 

145 
169 
220 


Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Building trades 


Machine trades 

Printing trades 


Miscellaneous trades 


103 

157 

173 

50 

58 

17 


Transportation service 


Public service 


Personal service 


Miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen . . . 
Common labor 






Total 


86,159 


16,283 


189 





Managerial service 


(400) 


Professional sei^yice 


(360) 


Proprietors \ 


(341) 


Commercial service\ 


(245) 


Printing trades 


(220) 


Clerical service 


(219) 


Public service 


(173) 


Machine trades 


(169) 


Transportation service 


(1S7) 


Building trades 


(I4S) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(103) 


Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 


(S8) 


Personal service 


(SO) 


Common labor 


(17) 


All occupations 


(189) 



■ 



Fig. 2. — Showing the number of children in the high schools of four cities 
(Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupational group for every 
1,000 males over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in the four cities, 
according to the Federal Census for 1910. Data from 16,283 high-school students. 



34 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

and some of them sufifer very badly. Note the two extremes, for example. 
Managerial service leads with 400 students in high school to every 1,000 
men over forty-five in the general population. At the other end of the 
series is common labor with but seventeen. The one labor group that 
stands out with a good record is the printing trades. It is one point ahead 
of one of the non-labor groups, clerical service. This is probably to be 
explained in terms of the superior education of persons engaged in the 
printing industry, the associations formed in the occupation, and the 
stability of employment. The favorable position of the public service 
is probably to be explained in the same way. 

A word of criticism is pertinent here. In the light of other findings 
of the study to be presented in later chapters there is reason to believe 
that the order of the groups at the upper end of the diagram is not 
altogether correct, due to certain difficulties arising from the effort to 
translate the classification of the census over into the classification used 
in this study. The managerial service certainly should not rank 
first, but it gets that rank here because the census does not in all cases 
draw a clear line between managers and owners. Also there are probably 
a considerable number of individuals returned as commercial workers 
who occupy managerial positions in commerce. Consequently the 
number of persons in the directing occupations is reported as somewhat 
smaller than the actual facts would warrant. This results in a larger 
proportionate representation in high school. Commercial service, on 
the other hand, should rank somewhat higher than it is placed here. 
This group of workers is probably diluted in the census report by the 
inclusion of a considerable number of clerical workers, due to the ambi- 
guity in the meaning of the term clerk. The order of the first four groups 
should probably be as follows: professional service, proprietors, com- 
mercial service, and managerial service. The evidence favoring this 
order will be noted from time to time in this study. 

It is probable, for three reasons, that the proportion of children in 
high school from the laboring groups is somewhat smaller than this 
diagram suggests. In the first place, the acceptance of the number of 
men over forty-five in each occupation as the basis for comparison gives 
a certain advantage to those occupations in which the proportion of such 
men is relatively small, because over 30 per cent of the fathers of high- 
school students are under forty-five. As a consequence, the occupations 
engaging few men beyond this age are not given a representation in the 
general population proportionate to the actual number of fathers of 
high-school students to be found in them. Since on the average the 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND TOTAL ENROLMENT 35 

laboring classes are recruited less from the older men than are the other 
groups, it is apparent that the procedure followed here favors them. 
Of course, among the non-labor groups, it is true that the clerical and 
commercial workers are likewise favored. In the second place, the 
average number of children per family among the manual laborers is 
somewhat larger than it is among the other classes of the population. 
This is especially true of the lower grades of labor. Therefore, if the 
children from these elements in the population were enrolled in the high 
school in proportionate numbers, their ratio to the number of adults of 
the parental age in the same population groups should be larger than 
that for children from other classes with a lower birth-rate. In the 
third place, earlier marriages and a higher marriage rate among the 
laboring classes than among the more well-to-do members of society 
work toward the same end. These considerations should incline us 
therefore toward a revision of Table IX and Figure 2 in the direction 
of larger rather than smaller differences between the two extremes. 



CHAPTER VI 

PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH THE SCHOOL 

In the previous chapter the character of the total high-school popula- 
tion has been under examination. The proportionately larger represen- 
tation of the proprietors, professionals, managers, and commercial 
workers was noted. In this chapter the composition of the school 
population in the earlier years will be compared with that in the later 
years. For this analysis we have data from the students in each of the 
four years in the high schools of the four cities and from the pupils of the 
sixth grade in Mt. Vernon. 

THE FRESHMAN AND SENIOR YEARS 

All are famiUar with the fact that the number of students in the 
Senior year of the high school is but a small fraction of the total high- 
school enrolment, far below the 25 per cent that would result if the same 
number of young people entered the Freshman class every year, if all 
were promoted regularly, if there were no deaths or eliminations, and 
if there were no accretions except at the beginning of the first year. 
According to the report of the Bureau of Education for 1917-18, the 
students in the first year of the high school constituted 39.8 per cent of 
the total high-school enrolment in the United States; those in the 
second year, 26.9 per cent; those in the third year 18.8 per cent; and 
those in the fourth year but 14.5 per cent. The relatively small propor- 
tion in the last year of the high school is due chiefly to two causes, 
namely, elimination and the increasing size of the Freshman class, 
the latter resulting from the normal population increase and the in- 
creasing interest in secondary education on the part of children and 
their parents. 

Because of the small number of students in the Senior year it is 
naturally assumed that some sort of selection is going on continually in 
the high school. Many studies have been made of the process of 
elimination and of the character of the ehminated. It is our purpose 
here to note the social composition of the student population in the last 
year as contrasted with the first. The facts for the four cities combined 
appear in Table XIV. For each of the two years the percentages of 
students coming from the various occupational groups are given. It is 

36 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 37 

plain that the Senior class in these high schools does not differ from the 
Freshman class merely in the age of its students and their advance- 
ment in the course. The proportions coming from the different elements 
in the population are noticeably different. The children from the labor- 
ing classes constitute in every instance a smaller percentage of the total 
enrolment of the last than of the first year of the school. On the other 
hand a larger percentage of the Seniors than of the Freshmen are children 
of the proprietors, the professionals, the managers, and the commercial 
workers. Two groups make equal proportionate contributions to the 
two classes, namely, the clerical and agricultural workers. 

TABLE XIV 

Percentage of Students in Each of Two High-School Years from Each 
OF the Occupational Grouts in the High Schools of Bridgeport, Mt. 
Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle: Data from 6,782 Freshmen and 2,522 
Seniors 



Parental Occupation 

Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 

Unknown 

Total 



Freshman 



Senior 



22.9 
12.5 
19. 1 
II .1 
S-9 

2-3 

3-5 

5-3 

4.6 

.8 

2-3 

3-6 

I . I 

•9 

•3 

.6 

3-2 



These same facts under a slight adaptation are presented graphically 
in Figure 3. Here is shown for each group the number in the Senior 
year for every 100 from the same group in the Freshman year. This 
ratio that the one year bears toward the other exhibits a very wide range 
among the various occupations, as an inspection of the diagram clearly 
reveals. As a general proposition, those occupations having a relatively 
poor representation in the high school are just the ones with a small 
proportion in the Senior year. At the two extremes are professional 



38 



SELECTWE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



service and common labor. For the former there are 60.2 students in 
the Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school; 
whereas, for the latter this ratio is but 1 2.4. The facts for the Sophomore 
and Junior years, as might be assumed, show a condition intermediate 
between the two extreme years. They are therefore not given here. 
It seems that as we pass from year to year in the high school, we see the 
children from the laboring classes constituting a less and less important 
element of the student population. 



Professional service 


(60.2) 


Proprietors 


(48.2) 


Commercial service 


(48.2) 


Managerial service 


(46.2) 


Clerical service 


(37.4) 


Agricultural service 


(37.0) 


Artisan-proprietors 


(30.S) 


Printing trades 


(27.S) 


Public service 


(23-9) 


Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 


(22.6) 


Building trades 


(22.4) 


Personal service 


(21.9) 


Transportation service 


(21.6) 


Machine trades 


(20.6) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(18.1) 


Common labor 


(12.4) 


All occupations 


(37-2) 




Fig. 3. — Showing for each occupational group the number of students in the 
Senior year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. Data from Bridge- 
port, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle. 

An analysis of the data from the different cities shows some differences, 
but they are quantitative rather than qualitative. The laboring classes 
hold their own better in some of the cities than they do in others, but in 
every instance their record is relatively inferior to that of the other 
groups. Thus the nine laboring groups (the building trades, machine 
trades, printing trades, miscellaneous trades, transportation service, 
public service, personal service, miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen, 
and common labor) contribute 26^ per cent of the membership in the 
Senior class in Bridgeport; 23.3 per cent in Seattle; 15.2 per cent in 
St. Louis; and but 4.3 per cent in Mt. Vernon. These differences are, 
to be sure, accounted for in some measure by occupational differences 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 39 

in the populations of the several cities. The high proportion in Bridge- 
port is certainly largely explained in this way. Bridgeport is very highly 
industrialized. The laboring classes consequently constitute an excep- 
tionally large element in the population. The very low percentage of 
children from these classes in the Senior year of Mt. Vernon is also 
to be explained largely in terms of the occupational character of the popu- 
lation itself. The records of Seattle and St. Louis, on the other hand, 
are not to be interpreted in this way. The large representation of the 
laboring groups in the former city is not due to their large numbers in 
the general population. As a matter of fact, they form a less important 
numerical group in Seattle than in St. Louis. The high schools of the 
former seem to hold the children of laborers unusually well. 

THE SOCIAL COMPOSITION OF THE SIXTH GRADE 

By the time the first year of the high school is reached the 
student population is already greatly reduced and presumably 
already considerably selected. It is fortunate therefore that for at 
least one of the cities, Mt. Vernon, facts regarding the social composition 
of the entire sixth grade were secured. Of course there are many 
children who do not even reach this point in our educational system, 
because of retardation and elimination. This group of children, there- 
fore, may be assumed to be somewhat different socially from the children 
in the first grade, or from the children secured by taking a cross-section 
of the entire population at any particular age. It nevertheless provides 
us with significant data for comparative purposes. 

The percentage of children from each of the occupational groups for 
both the sixth grade and the Senior year of the high school is given 
in Table XV. The difference between the first and last high-school 
years already noted is seen to be greatly accentuated. And it is probable 
that the difference would be somewhat greater in a city with a larger 
laboring population. Even here the majority of the children in the 
sixth grade come from the homes of laborers. This is certainly not 
true of the students in the Senior year of the high school. These two 
cross-sections of the school population give us two very different sociolog- 
ical pictures. They might almost be conceived as representative of two 
different social orders. 

The contrast is so striking that it seems advisable to give it a graph- 
ical representation. This is done in Figure 4 by taking four occupational 
groups showing different tendencies and plotting a curve for each, 
picturing its percentage representation in the school population of each 



40 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

TABLE XV 

Percentage of Children from Each Occupational Group in Each of Two 
School Grades. Data from 739 Children in the Sixth Grade and 
136 IN THE Senior Year of the High School, Mt. Vernon 



Parental Occupation 


Sixth Grade 


Senior Year of High 
School 


Proprietors 


13 I 

- 6.8 

10. 

6.0 

4-3 
2.3 
9.1 

16. 5 

4-7 

■4 

5-2 

4.2 
1-5 

2.4 

■4 

10.8 

2-3 


29.4 
16.9 
20 6 


Professional service 


Managerial service 


Commercial service 


iS-4 
S-2 


Clerical service 


Agricultural service 


Artisan-proprietors 


S-2 

.7 
.7 


Building trades 


Machine trades 


Printing trades 


Miscellaneous trades 


2 2 


Transportation service 


■7 



Public service 


Personal service 




Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 


.0 


Unknown 


30 




Total 


100. 


100 







t6 






Building Trac 
Common Lab 






/ 
/ 












Professional S 


!rvice 




/ 








Clerical Servi 














^-^ 






^ 






-" 


' 






^^ 




\ 


^.^^ " 






























































8 




' -^ 


\ 


^ 




V 














N 
N 

N 

S 




\ 



9 
Grade 



Fig. 4. — Showing percentage of children in each grade from the sixth to the 
twelfth whose fathers are engaged in each of four groups of occupations. Mt. Vernon, 
May, 192 1. No data for seventh and eighth grades. 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 41 

grade from the sixth to the twelfth. Since we have no data from the 
seventh and eighth grades the position of the curve in these grades for 
each group is purely hypothetical. Based on actual facts it would 
probably not follow exactly the course given it here, but its general 
direction would be the same. The diagram shows in an impressive way 
the diverse reactions of these four groups to educational opportunity. 
Each of the occupational divisions was chosen for a reason — common 
labor and professional service, because they represent the two extremes; 
clerical service because it represents an intermediate tendency; and the 
building trades because they constitute the largest labor group as well as 
the largest occupational group in the sixth grade. The proportion of 
children from the building trades and common labor in each grade 
diminishes very rapidly as we pass from one year to the next. The latter 
has practically disappeared in the Sophomore year, and the former are 
barely able to keep a slight representation until the end of the high school. 
Professional service, on the other hand, furnishes a constantly increasing 
percentage of the school population as progress is made through the 
schools. Clerical service improves its position slightly, but does Httle 
more than hold its own. The other non-labor groups show tendencies 
similar to those of professional service, and the remaining labor groups 
behave much as the building trades. 

■ ' Perhaps one more chart bearing on this same matter will not tire the 
reader. In Figure 5 is shown for each occupational group the num- 
ber of children in the Senior year of the high school for every one 
hundred in the sixth grade. Comment is hardly necessary. The dia- 
gram carries its own message. It brings out with peculiar force the 
enormous contrast between the school populations in these two years 
of the Mt. Vernon public schools. 

Since the organization of most of the work in most of our high schools 
assumes four years of attendance, the number and character of the 
student population in the Senior year might be expected to afford one 
of the most satisfactory measures of the extension of secondary educa- 
tional opportunity. The Senior class should tell much about the success 
of the high school in reaching the various elements in the population. 
It is for this group especially that the ordinary high school is maintained. 

In the previous chapter the total high-school population was analyzed 
in the light of the social composition of that adult population from 
which children of high-school age come. This same thing is done for 
the students of the Senior year in Figure 6. Here is shown for each 
occupational group the number of students in the Senior year of the 



42 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



36 



Commercial service 


(47.7) 


Professional service 


(46.0) 


Proprietors 


U1.2) 


Managerial service 


(37.8) 


Clerical service 


(21.9) 


Artisan-proprietors 


(10.4) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(7.9) 


Transportation service 


(3.2) 


Machine trades 


(2.9) 


Building trades 


(.8) 


Printing trades 


(0) 


Agricultural service 


(0) 


Personal service 


(0) 


Miners, lumber-workers 


fishermen (0) 


Common labor 


(0) 


Public service 


(0) 


All occupations 


(18.4) 




Fig. 5. — Showing for each occupational group the number of children in the 
Senior year of the high school for every 100 from the same group in the sixth grade of 
the elementary school. Mt. Vernon, May, 192 1. 



60 



Professional service 


(69) 


Managerial service 


(68) 


Proprietors 


(S6) 


Commercial service 


(42) 


Clerical service 


(33) 


Printing trades 


(22) 


Public service 


(18) 


Machine trades 


(17) 


Transportation service 


(16) 


Building trades 


(IS) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(9) 


Miners, lumber- workers, fishermen 


(6) 


Personal service 


(S) 


Common labor 


(I) 


All occupations ] 


~(28) 






Fig. 6. — Showing the number of children in the Senior year of the high school in 
four cities (Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle) from each occupational group 
for every 1,000 males over forty-five years of age engaged in that occupation in the 
four cities, according to the Federal Census for 19 10. Data from 2,382 high-school 
Seniors. 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 43 

high school in the four cities for every 1,000 men over forty-five years of 
age engaged in that occupation in these same cities, according to the 
thirteenth census. The reasons for choosing the number of males over 
forty-five as the basis for comparison have already been given, so need 
not be repeated. As might be expected from the data presented in this 
chapter thus far, the differences between the laboring and the non- 
laboring groups are greater here than for the total high-school population. 
It appears that the chances that the child of a father engaged in one of 
the professional pursuits will reach the Senior year of the high school 
are sixty-nine times as great as those of the child whose father is a 
common laborer. These two occupational classes represent the extremes. 
The others fall in between in a gradual series with the laboring groups 
at the lower end of the distribution. 

Table XVI gives a concrete picture of the occupations represented 
in the Senior year of the high school as Table XI did for the entire high 
school. The same caution is necessary in interpreting this as was 
suggested in the discussion of the earlier table. Many of these particular 
occupations might not appear in a group of one hundred students 
selected at random from the Senior classes in the high schools of these 
four cities, but the larger groups of which these occupations are repre- 
sentative would. Nothing could show more plainly than this table that 
the students in the Senior year of the pubHc high school are socially a 
highly selected group. 

The objection may be raised here that the differences between the 
earlier and later years are due to the promotion of the fathers from less 
responsible to more responsible positions, or to their acquisition of 
property which enables them to set up business for themselves and thus 
enter the ranks of the proprietors. Obviously to the extent that this 
is going on during the period of high-school attendance the character 
of the student population in the Senior year will differ from that of the 
students in the Freshman year in the direction indicated in this chapter. 
If, for example, a goodly proportion of the fathers of high-school Fresh- 
men who are engaged in manual labor are promoted to managerial 
positions or go into business for themselves as proprietors during the 
succeeding three years, the students in the Senior year whose fathers 
are engaged in the managerial occupations or as proprietors will show 
an increased proportion, even though there is no elimination whatso- 
ever from high school in the meantime. It must be assumed of course 
at the same time that an equal number of fathers are not demoted from 
managerial positions or do not lose property, making it necessary for 
them to fall back into the ranks of labor. 



44 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



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CO 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND PROGRESS THROUGH SCHOOL 45 

Fortunately we have at hand the facts bearing on this question. 
For the purpose of securing information indicating the degree and nature 
of the change of occupation on the part of parents during the period of 
high-school attendance this question was asked the students in the St. 
Louis high schools: ''What was your father's occupation three years 
ago?" The period of three years instead of four formed the basis of 
this question, because at any particular moment, such as the time 
when our study was made, the number of years between the Freshman 
and the Senior class is exactly three. A tabulation of the facts for the 
Senior year shows that during the three preceding years the fathers of 
but nine students out of a total of 1,030 had advanced from the laboring 
occupations into those five groups of occupations styled as non-laboring 
in this study. During the same period the fathers of seven of these 
students passed in the other direction, from the non-laboring to the 
laboring classes. This leaves a difference of less than two-tenths of i 
per cent to account for the enormous differences already noted between 
the Freshman and Senior years. An examination of the clerical occupa- 
tions also revealed no evidence that the proportion of this group in the 
several high-school years is modified by either promotion or demotion. 
But two clerical workers were promoted to managerial positions, and two 
were demoted to clerical positions from the managerial. It seems that 
the fathers of practically all high-school students have reached that 
point in years where no promotion may be expected to take them out of 
the occupational classes they have reached. At this time in life there is 
apparently but a small, a negligible chance, that a man will change his 
occupation sufficiently to take him from one of these groups to an- 
other. All of which goes to show that socially the student population in 
the Senior year of the high school is highly selected as compared with 
that of the Freshman year or the earlier grades. 



CHAPTER VII 

PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE NOT 

IN HIGH SCHOOL 

In order to throw additional light on this question of the selective 
character of the high school, four groups of children of high-school age 
not in high school were studied. Of these one was in Seattle and 
three in Bridgeport. Their social character will now be examined. 

CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE AT WORK IN SEATTLE 

Information regarding the occupations of the fathers or guardians 
of 514 children of high-school age (fourteen to seventeen years inclusive) 
at work in the commercial and industrial establishments of Seattle was 
obtained in December of 1919. These facts were secured through 
personal interviews with the children by field workers. The two sexes 
were almost equally well represented, there being 249 girls and 265 boys. 
Obviously this does not include all of the children of high-school age at 
work or not in high school, but the number is large enough to be represen- 
tative. 

Percentage data from this investigation are presented in Table 
XVII in which a comparison is made between this group of children of 
high-school age at work and the total Seattle high-school population 
for which the occupational data were obtained. The small group in 
the high school classified as ''unknown" in previous tables and diagrams 
was not recognized in the computation of percentages here. 

A glance at the table suffices to show the profound differences 
between the two groups. The proprietors, professional service, mana- 
gerial service, clerical service, agricultural service, artisan-proprietors, 
and printing trades have better proportionate representation in the high 
school than out. This is especially pronounced for the first four groups. 
The favorable balance for the farmers and the clerical workers is not so 
marked. The printing trades have the best record among the labor 
groups, but the number of cases is so small that the conclusions drawn 
should not be too rigid. The artisan-proprietors also make a very good 
showing, but the returns on this group are so subject to error because of 
insufficient data that the comparison certainly does not represent the 
actual situation. On the other hand, the laboring groups, as a rule, 

46 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND CHILDREN NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL 



47 



appear in a rather poor light. Taken together and excluding the farmers 
they account for over 75 per cent of the children of high-school age at 
work. Without doubt the poorest showing is that made by common 
labor, while the best seems to be that made by the proprietors. 

TABLE XVII 

Percentage Distribution of the OccxnpATiONS of the Fathers or Guardians 

OF Two Groups of Children. Data from 514 Children of High-School 

Age at Work and 6,138 Children in High School, Seattle 



Parental Occupation 


Children of High-School 
Age at Work 


Children in High 
School 


Proprietors 


2-5 
4-1 

8.2 

2.7 
3-5 
3-9 
.2 . 

24-3 
II. I 

.2 
5-8 
9-5 

2-5 

1.8 
16.0 


17-4 
II. 4 ' 
17. 1 


Professional service 


Managerial service 


Commercial service 


8.7 


Clerical service 


4.6 


Agricultural service 


4.8 


Artisan-proprietors 


2.6 


Building trades 


II. 8 


Machine trades 


7.4 


Printing trades 


I.I 


Miscellaneous trades 


2.0 


Transportation service 


s.e 


Public service . . . 


1.6 


Personal service 


Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 


I.O 

1 .4 






Total 


100. 


100. 







In Figure 7 this comparison between the children in high school and 
those outside is put in graphical form. For each occupational group it 
shows the number of children among those at work for every one hundred 
from the same group attending high school. It should be remembered, 
however, that data were secured from but 514 children at work which 
is only 8 per cent of the number studied in the high school. This 
diagram speaks for itself in unmistakable terms. The ratio ranges all 
the way from 93 for common labor to i for the proprietors. 

Perhaps it is surprising to the reader that the managerial and 
professional occupations do have so large a representation outside the 
high school, and it was somewhat of a surprise to the writer. It is due in 
part to the difficulties of occupational classification already referred to. 
At best, there is a wide range in each of these groups. The major 
portion of the managerial group was made up of foremen and people 
holding relatively low-grade positions. The same may be said of the 



48 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



other group. The designation musician, for instance, has a rather wide 
range of meaning. Yet, it must be said, that among the professional 
occupations the clergymen had the largest representation. This may 
be accounted for in part on the grounds suggested above, since the 
prophetic gift, independent of a thorough and rigorous professional 
preparation, may be regarded as sufficient qualification for entry into 



Number 

60 



Common labor 


(93) 
(32) 

(25) 








1 


^^^^* 


1 




Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 


^mm^^B 


Miscellaneous trades 


HHHl 


Building trades 


(17) 


^^ 








Transportation service 


(14) 


■■ 








Public service 


(14) 


■■ 








Machine trades 


(13) 


■■ 








Personal service 


(9) 


■ 








Agricultural service 


(7) 


■ 








Clerical service 


(6) 


■ 








Managerial service 


(4) 


1 








Professional service 


(3) 


1 








Commercial service 


(3) 


1 








Printing trades 


(2) 


1 








Proprietors 


(I) 










All occupations 


(8) 


■ 









Fig. 7. — Showing the number of children from each occupational group among 
children of high-school age at work for every 100 children from the same group attend- 
ing high school. Data from 6,387 children in high school and 514 at work. Seattle, 
1919-20. 

the ministry. There was evidence, however, to show that in this group 
were several boys who had run away from home. This sort of thing 
occurs in every one of the groups, as well as other serious misfortunes, 
such as separation of parents, invalidism or death of the father. 

THE BRIDGEPORT EVENING HIGH SCHOOL 

In Bridgeport three groups were studied, not exhaustively, but 
sufficiently to provide comparative data. As already stated, they were 
the evening high school, the state trade school, and the compulsory 
continuation classes, the latter being maintained in the evening for 
children from fourteen to sixteen years of age who have left school with- 
out having completed the elementary school. 



PARENT.\L OCCUPATION AND CHILDREN NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL 49. 

The students in the evening high school constitute an interesting 
group, since, presumably, they are young persons desirous of further 
education who, because of some misfortune, are compelled to engage 
in gainful employment during the regular working-day. They are 
attending school during the hours which most young people use for 
recreation and entertainment. This speaks well for their moral qualities. 

Per Cent 



Machine trades 


(20.6) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(1S.2) 


Common labor 


(11.9) 


Building trades 


(10.7) 


Managerial service 


(9.9) 


Proprietors 


(6.6) 


Agricultural service 


(5-8) 


Artisan-proprietors 


(S-4) 


Commercial service 


(3-3) 


Professional service 


(2.5) 


Transportation service 


(2.5) 


Clerical service 


(1.2) 


Personal service 


(1.2) 


Public service 


(1.2) 


Printing trades 


(.4) 


Unknown 


(1.6) 




Fig. 8. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 243 students 
attending the high-school department of the evening school. Bridgeport, December, 
1920. 

The enrolment in this school is approximately one thousand. It is 
a somewhat heterogeneous group, including a few students who are 
high-school graduates as well as great numbers of persons well beyond 
the high-school age. They are registered not only in the high-school de- 
partment, which pro\ddes a sequence and variety of courses comparable 
to the course of study of the regular day high school, but also in special 
courses and subjects of considerable diversity. The 243 students whose 
records are used in this study were enrolled in the high-school depart- 
ment, were not high-school graduates, and were all twenty-one years of 
age or under. Of these 147 were girls and 96 were boys. The median 
age of the girls was 17.9; that of the boys, 18.6; and that of the two 
sexes combined, 18.2. Thus we have a group, slightly older than the 
regular high-school population, yet comparable to it in most respects. 



50 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

Figure 8 shows the occupational distribution of the fathers of these 
243 young people. It will be observed that the four leading groups are 
labor groups, with common labor occupying the third place. A re- 
examination of Table IX, portraying the social composition of the popula- 
tion of the day high school, is of interest here. It is clear that the two 
populations are very different. In the high school the proprietors and 
the managerial occupations are in first and second places, whereas 
in the evening high school they hold sixth and fifth places respectively. 
This excellent representation of certain of the labor groups apparently 
indicates the existence of many young people among them who are 
ambitious for larger educational opportunities. 

THE STATE TRADE SCHOOL AT BRIDGEPORT 

The trade school at Bridgeport is supported and administered by the 
state of Connecticut under the provisions of the Smith-Hughes Act. Its 
purpose is therefore intensely practical and it aims to turn out efficient 
workmen with only as much theory as is necessary to serve this purpose. 
It does this by providing a 4,800-hour course in each of fifteen trades, 
covering a period of two years and organized on the regular eight-hour 
basis now common in industry. There is no official connection with the 
city schools, although recently there has been inaugurated a co-operative 
course in industrial arts in which the academic training is given in the 
city high school and the trade training in the trade school. But it 
should be borne in mind that this school points very definitely into 
industry and those who enter it have renounced all intention of pursuing 
a higher education. 

The school has a registration of approximately 400 students of 
which the great majority are boys. The information card was filled 
out by 198 students of whom 129 were in the first year and 69 in the 
second ; 14 were girls and 1 84 were boys. The returns were not complete 
because many of the boys were only half-time students and others were 
out on project work. Then, too, a portion of the enrolment was composed 
of soldiers who were far beyond the high-school age. Records from this 
group were not wanted. However, there is no reason for believing that 
the group studied is not representative of the trade-school population 
generally. 

Figure 9 shows the occupational distribution of the fathers of these 
198 students. The same four great labor groups lead here as in the 
evening high school, except that common labor has forged ahead of the 
miscellaneous trades. On the whole, the labor groups are somewhat 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND CHILDREN NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL 51 

better represented in the trade school than in the evening high school, 
while it naturally follows that the reverse is true for the non-labor 
groups. And a comparison of the trade school with the regular day high 
school shows two markedly different groups of children from the stand- 
point of the population sources from which they come. As a matter of 
fact, ■^ 4.7 peu cent of the students in the high school come from the five 
non-labor groups (proprietors, professional, managerial, commercial, and 

Per Cent 



Machine trades 

Common labor 

Miscellaneous trades 

Building trades 

Managerial service 

Proprietors 

Agricultural service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Personal service 

Transportation service 

Clerical service 

Commercial service 

Printing trades 

Professional service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Public service 

Unknown 



c 


5 


10 


i^ 


20 25 










^^^^ 




(25.8) 


"j^™ 


^"" 








(17.2) 

(10.7) 

(9-6) 


1^^^" 


^^^^ 


■ 




1^^^" 


1^"™ 


1 


^^^^^* 


^^^^^ 


(7-6) 


^n^^n 


^^B 








(6.1) 


^l^^l^l 


■ 


(4.S) 


IJ^^H 




(4.S) 


■■1^ 










(4.0) 


i^^B 










(3-0) 


■^ 










(i.S) 


■ 










(1.5) 


!■ 










(i.o) 


■ 










(i.o) 


■ 










(.5) 


1 










(-5) 


1 










(1.0) 


■ 









Fig. 9. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 198 students 
in the state trade school. Bridgeport, February, 1921. 

clerical occupations), w hile but jy.^ per cent, of the trade-school students 
come from these same five occupational classes. 



THE COMPULSORY CONTINUATION CLASSES OF BRIDGEPORT 

In the compulsory continuation classes of the Bridgeport evening 
school is found a most interesting group of children for the student of 
education. Many of the "problems" of elementary education are found 
in these classes. As already intimated, Connecticut has a state law 
that compels children from fourteen to sixteen years of age who have 
left school without completing the grades, to attend these evening 
classes until they either reach their sixteenth birthday or complete the 



52 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

eighth grade. There are consequently gathered into' these classes great 
numbers of children unfortunate either by nature or by nurture. Here 
are the misfits, the children who cannot "get on" in the elementary 
school, those who have been educationally discouraged, those whose 
schooling has been interrupted in one way or another, children whose 
homes lack the educational stimulus, children who have no homes. 
About these children one thing is certain. It is this: Practically none 
of them will ever attend high school. They are a sampling of that 
great group of children still to be found in our cities and towns for whom 
the high school simply does not exist. At best, it is nothing more than 
a name to them. And it is for this reason particularly that they are 
introduced into this study. 

There are probably about a thousand children enrolled in these 
classes which meet at those school buildings which are conveniently 
located. But the attendance is very irregular and the composition of 
the classes is continually changing because of the admission of new 
recruits from the elementary school and the mustering out of individual 
after individual following the sixteenth birthday. It should be pointed 
out, however, that a significant number do remain after they reach 
this age. 

Sociological data were obtained from 579 children in these classes, 
305 girls and 274 boys, which included practically all those in attendance 
on the evening the cards were passed out. As might be expected, many 
of the cards were incompletely filled out. Where the information 
missing was important the cards were sent back and the facts especially 
desired were secured in this way in most cases. The final result is 
fairly satisfactory for purposes of this study. 

Figure 10 gives a good picture of the social composition of this 
group of children. The representation of the five non-labor groups has 
shrunk to 10.3 per cent, and over half of these are found in the mana- 
gerial service alone. Most^f them are labor foremen. The fathers of 
more than one-fourth (26.6) of the 579 children are common laborers, 
whereas but 1.7 per cent of the children in the high school come from 
this occupational group. 

What amounts to a summary of the situation found in Bridgeport is 
given in Figure 1 1 . Here a comparison is drawn between the high-school 
population, on the one hand, and these three groups of non-high-school 
children combined, on the other. The bars represent for each occupa- 
tional class the number of children in the latter for every one hundred in 
the former. The tremendous difference between common labor and all 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND CHILDREN NOT IN IHGH SCHOOL 53 



Per Cent 



Common labor 
Machine trades 
Miscellaneous trades 
Building trades 
Managerial service 
Artisan-proprietors 
Transportation service 
Personal service 
Clerical service 
Proprietors 
Commercial service 
Agricultural service 
Professional service 
Printing trades 



PuBlic service" 
Unknown 



(26.6) 
(22.0) 
(16.3) 

(8.6) 

(5.3) 

(4.3) 

(4.0) 

(2.S) 

(1.7) 
(1.4) 
(1.2) 

(.9) 

(.7) 

(•3)i 

■~TI) I 




(40) 



Fig. 10. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of 579 children 
attending the compulsory continuation classes of the evening school. Bridgeport, 
December, 1920. 



Common labor 
Miscellaneous trades 
Building trades 
Machine trades 
Printing trades 
Agricultural service 
Personal service 
Transportation service 
Artisan-proprietors 
Managerial service 
Clerical service 
Commercial service 
Public service 
Professional service 
Proprietors 

All occupations 



Fig. 1 1 . — Showing the number of children from each occupational group among 
children of high-school age not in high school (evening high school, trade school, and 
compulsor>' continuation classes) for every 100 students from the same group attend- 
ing the regular day high school. Data from 2,257 children in high school and 1,020 
in the other three groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21. 



t 


3 200 400 600 












(S7i) 
(109) 


^ 








(82) 


^m 








(72) 


■i 








(71) 


■i 








(57) 


■ 








(so) 


■ 








(46) 










(42) 


■ 








(18) 


1 








(16) 










(11) 










(9) 










(9) 










(8) 










(45) 


■ 









54 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the other groups is striking. As a matter of fact, all the labor groups 
occupy relatively unfavorable positions, except the workers in public 
service, who are found in third place. Too much weight, however, 
should not be attached to this exception because of the small number 
of cases involved. 

In concluding this chapter, the reader's attention should be called to 
the similarity of the results obtained in Seattle and Bridgeport. It is 
clear that these groups of children of high-school age outside the regular, 
high school are very different in social composition from the high-school 
population itself. The several occupational groups apparently arrange 
themselves in a graded series, with the proprietors and professional 
service at one end, and common labor at the other. 



CHAPTER VIII 
PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 

In response to the growing social demand for an enriched course of 
study the pubhc high school has made many curriculum changes, partic- 
ularly since the opening of the twentieth century. Among them is the 
organization of several curricula, each designed to meet the needs of some 
portion of the high-school population. Those who have been strong 
advocates of these adjustments have maintained that the single curric- 
ulum, pointing toward the higher education, is inadequate and involves 
an injustice to great masses of young people who cannot possibly go on 
to college. It will be interesting to see how children coming from the 
various occupational groups react to this complex program. 

In each of the cities studied several different curricula are 
offered the students in its high schools. If all four cities offered the 
same curricula, it would be possible and desirable to discuss these 
curricula seriatim, bringing to bear on each curriculum the facts from 
all the cities. But such is not the case. Each city has organized its 
high-school course of study to suit itself, within certain limitations set 
by college-entrance requirements. Consequently the relation between 
parental occupation and course of study will be studied in each of the 
cities separately. 

BRIDGEPORT 

In the Bridgeport High School six curricula are offered the students. 
These are the college preparatory, scientific, general, normal, com- 
mercial, and industrial arts courses. Since the normal course is exclu- 
sively for girls and the industrial arts strictly for boys, thfs means five 
curricula for each sex. As will be noted later, however, several of these 
courses receive very light patronage. 

Space will not permit a detailed description of each curriculum, and 
perhaps such a description is quite unnecessary, since the general content 
of most of them is familiar to anyone acquainted with the American 
public high school. The following brief characterization taken from the 
high-school circular to parents will have to suffice. 

I. The college preparatory course prepares for the best colleges and 
universities as well as for the law and medical preparatory courses. 



56 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



It Stresses the traditional academic subjects with special emphasis on 
the languages. 

II. The scientific preparatory course prepares for the best scientific 
and technical schools in the country. It differs from the coUege prepara- 
tory course merely in a larger provision for the study of science and 
mathematics at the expense of the languages. 

III. The general course is designed to offer a broad and practical 
education to those who are not preparing for a college or a scientific 
school. Subject to the approval of the principal, the student is allowed 
extensive privileges of election. 

IV. The normal course prepares students for the city normal school 
and offers a well-rounded and practical course with definite requirements 
for girls who are preparing for the important work of teaching. 

V. The commercial course prepares rather definitely for clerical 
positions with the usual offerings in the special subjects. 

VI. The industrial arts course is conducted through co-operation 
with the state trade school in which the shopwork is given. The course 
is either three or four years in length and is intended to train for the 
manufacturing and mechanical trades. 



TABLE XVIII 

Selection of Ctjrricula by Children from the Various Occupational Groups, 
Bridgeport High School, All Classes 





Girls 


Boys 


Parental 
Occupation 


3 




!2; 


3 
1 

E 

c3 


1 

c 




c 

C/3 




u 


[3 

3 

-a 
a 


'S 

B 
S 

u 


"3 
a 
6 


a 
.Si 


"d 
I 


Proprietors 


88 

40 

39 

26 

II 

7 

5 

3 

8 

I 

6 

2 

S 

I 


57 

ir 

74 
18 
16 
8 
16 
19 
45 

23 
14 
10 
6 
2 
13 


81 
17 
92 
36 

IS 

42 

37 
III 
2 
SI 
23 
21 
20 
14 
18 


I 
2 
6 
2 
3 
2 


2 


229 
70 

211 
82 
63 
32 
63 
60 

168 

8^ 
39 
36 
27 
16 
39 


lOS 

25 

36 

31 

10 

I 

21 

15 

41 

2 

26 

12 

5 

S 

4 

4 


4 

2 

12 

I 
1 

3 

I 

2 

10 

4 

I 

I 

2 

3 


20 

2 

19 

IS 
8 
5 
S 
9 

24 
I 
6 
9 
7 
6 
9 
3 


6 

I 
12 

I 

3 

I 
2 

6 

2 
2 

I 
I 
I 


87 
37 
95 

16 

S 
20 
28 
69 

I 
19 
14 

8 
12 

6 
10 




Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 


67 

174 

81 

35 

17 

48 

S6 

ISO 

4 

57 

38 


Agricultural ser\ace 


Building trades 


I 
4 








Miscellaneous trades 


I 


I 


Public service 












25 


Common labor 








8 
















Total 


250 


332 


613 


22 


3 


1,220 


343 


47 


148 


39 


460 


1.037 





An examination of Table XVIII shows very few girls taking either 
the general or the scientific curriculum. Likewise, the number of boys 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 



57 



in either the general or industrial arts course is small. This leaves but 
three courses each for the boys and girls. 

The table reveals no pronounced tendency for the selection of 
courses among the boys to fall along occupational lines. Each of the 
three courses has a fairly good representation from all of the larger 
groups. It should be remembered, however, that so far as outlook is 
concerned, there is but little difference between the college and the 
scientific curricula. 

Among the girls, on the other hand, a very different situation is 
found. The girls from the several occupational groups do show tendencies 



College 



Commercial 
75 loo 



Professional service 


(57.1)- 


-(24.3) 


Proprietors 


(38.4)- 


-(.$■^■4) 


Commercial service 


(31-7) 


-(439) 


Agricultural service 


(21.8)- 


-(46.9) 


Managerial service 


(18.S)- 


-(43.6) 


Clerical service 


(17.4)- 


-(52.4) 


Public service 


(13.9)- 


-(58.3) 


Artisan-pro prietors 


(7.9)- 


-(66.7) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(7.3)- 


-(62.2) 


Transportation service 


(s.i)- 


-(S9-o) 


Building trades 


(5-0)- 


-(61.7) 


Machine trades 


(4.8)- 


-(66.1) 


Personal service 


(3-7)- 


-(74.1) 


Common labor 


(0)- 


-(87.5) 


All occupations 


(20.5)- 


-(50.2) 




Fig. 12. — Showing the percentage of girls from each occupational group pursuing 
the college preparatory and commercial curricula, Bridgeport High School. 



to gravitate toward certain courses. This is clearly brought out in 
Figure 12 and Figure 13. In the former the percentage of students 
from each of these groups taking the college preparatory course is 
compared with the percentage in the commercial course. At the one 
extreme are the girls whose fathers are engaged in the professional 
occupations, with 57.1 per cent in the college course and but 24.3 
per cent in the commercial. At the other is the common labor group 
with not a single girl in the former course and 87.5 per cent in the 
latter. 



58 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



In Figure 13 the social composition of the entire group of girls 
pursuing the college preparatory curriculum in all four years is given. 
It shows in a striking way the class-character of this course. The first 
five groups, which may be regarded as the strictly non-labor groups, 
include 81.6 per cent of the total. Of the remaining 18.4 per cent, 2.8 
are from the agricultural occupations; 2.0 from the artisan-proprietors; 
and 3.2 from fathers of unknown occupation. There remain but 10.4 
per cent of these girls to represent the manual-labor groups. This 

Per Cent 



Proprietors 
Professional service 
Managerial service 
Commercial service 
Clerical service 
Machine trades 
Agricultural service 
Miscellaneous trades 
Artisan-proprietors 
Public service 
Building trades 
Transportation service 
Printing trades 
Personal service 
Common labor 
Unknown 





3 10 


20 30 4 


( ■> r- ~^ 


^^^^^ 






^^ 


(35 


^) 
0) 

6) 
4) 
4) 


^^^^™ 








(16 


m^H^^Hi 


^^^^^ 








di- 


^^^i^^i 


^^^B 






1 


do 


^^HI^^B 


(4 


^ 


(3 


2) 


^ 








(2 


8) 


■ 








(2 


4) 


■ 








(2 


0) 


■ 








(2 


0) 


■ 








d 
( 
( 
( 


2) 
8) 
4) 
4) 


1 

1 
1 

1 . 








(0) 










(3 


2) 


■ 









Fig. 13. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers of the 250 
girls pursuing the college preparatory course in the Bridgeport High School. 

tendency is yet more pronounced in the Senior year where 88.1 per cent 
come from the five non-labor groups and but 2.4 per cent from the 
labor groups. 

MT. VERNON 

On a small scale Mt. Vernon is experimenting with the specialized 
high school. There are two separate school buildings. In the one, 
known as the Academic High School, are taught the classical, scientific, 
and general curricula; while in the other, a vocational school, the 
commercial and practical arts curricula are offered. The situation here 
is of especial interest to us because in the other three cities studied the 
high school is of the general type. Exception might be taken to this 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 59 

Statement in its application to Bridgeport, for, although there is but one 
high school supported by the city, the state of Connecticut maintains 
a trade school there that enrols children of high-school age. It might, 
therefore, be maintained that in this city there are really two secondary 
schools, in one of which are taught the academic subjects; in the other, 
the practical arts. 

In all, six curricula are offered, five for the boys and five for the girls. 
Of these, three are academic and three vocational. To the former 
belong the classical, scientific, and general; and to the latter, the com- 
mercial, industrial arts, and household arts courses. The vocational 
curricula are so organized as to make possible the granting of certificates 
for short units of work. A short description of each course follows. 

I. The classical course is designed to meet the entrance requirements 
of college courses leading to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Its dis- 
tinctive feature is the requirement of three years of Latin and three 
years of either Greek, French, or Spanish. 

II. The scientific course prepares for college courses leading to the 
degree of Bachelor of Science, as well as for engineering and technical 
schools. It consists of about equal parts of English, foreign languages, 
mathematics, and science. 

III. The general course is rather elastic in its provisions and is 
organized to meet the needs of two classes of students: (i) those intend- 
ing to enter a normal or training-school for teachers; and (2) those who 
will leave school at the end of the high-school course. The subjects, 
however, are all from the traditional academic offering. 

IV. The commercial course includes the usual clerical and commercial 
branches, English, a little science and mathematics, and some provision 
for electives. It points toward wage-earning in the clerical occupations. 

V. The industrial arts course prepares in a general way for industrial 
pursuits. It is organized under a liberal elective system with the single 
restriction that seven- twelfths of the time be given to subjects of an 
academic character and the remainder to industrial branches, including 
joinery and wood-turning, printing, machine-shop practice, etc. 

VI. The household arts course, pointing toward homemaking, is 
organized according to the same principles as the course immediately 
preceding. 

Facts showing the selection of curricula by the students from the 
various occupational groups are presented in Table XIX. Because of 
the small number of cases representing certain of the occupations, the 
data for the boys and girls are combined in a single table. For a similar 



6o SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

reason the industrial arts and household arts curricula are brought 
together under the more general caption of "practical arts." This 
table gives for each occupational group the actual number and the 
percentage of students pursuing each of the curricula. It is interesting 
to note the great popularity of the classical course. Each of the curricula 
is well patronized except the practical arts course. 

An examination of that half of the table giving the percentage of 
students from each group enrolled in each curriculum reveals tendencies 
of the order already noted in Bridgeport. If we take any one of the 
curricula we find a wide range in the emphasis given to it by children 
from the different occupations. Of course, in making these observations, 
too much weight should not be attached to the distribution for the 
occupations represented by very small numbers of students, such as the 
printing trades, personal service, public service, and the miners, lumber- 
workers, and fishermen. The curricula presenting the widest range 
are the classical and commercial courses. Fifty-eight per cent of the 
students whose fathers are engaged in professional service are taking 
the classical course, while but 5 per cent of the children of common 
laborers are pursuing this course. For the commercial course, this 
range is from 62 per cent for transportation service to 9 per cent for 
professional service. The range is not so large for the other three 
curricula, but it is considerable and large enough to be significant. 
As a general thing, the scientific and general courses are patronized in 
greater proportion by the non-labor groups, while the reverse is true 
for the practical arts course. 

Since the Mt. Vernon High School system consists of an academic 
and a vocational school, it is of interest to note the differences in the 
social composition of the students attending the two institutions. This 
is easily done by combining the data for the three academic curricula, 
on the one hand, and for the two vocational curricula on the other, 
as presented in Table XIX. The results of this process, followed by a 
reduction to percentages, are given in Table XX. A glance at this 
table makes it clear that these two high schools are appeahng to different 
elements in the population. It seems that the children of laborers 
who do go to high school attend the vocational school almost altogether. 
To be sure, the non-labor groups also send a reasonable proportion of 
their children to this school but they exhibit a strong inclination to favor 
the academic school. They supply 84.6 per cent of the students in the 
latter and but 47.1 per cent of those in the former. 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION .AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 



6i 



TABLE XIX 

NlTMBER AND PERCENTAGE OF STUDENTS FROM EACH OCCUPATIONAL GrOUP PUR- 
SUING Each of the Five Curricula. Boys and Girls Combined. 
Mt. Vernon High School 



Parental 
Occupation 



Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service . . . 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber-workers, 

fishermen 

Common labor 

Unknown 



Total . 



1 43 

74 

47 



Number 



304 
128 
181 
122 
67 
II 

50 

57 
25 



1,084 



Percentage 



28 



17 

9 
16 
14 
31 

45 
34 
56 
56 
25 
50 
62 
56 
50 

100 

SO 



TABLE XX 

Percentage of Students in Each of the Mt. Vernon High Schools Coming 
from Each Occupational Group 



Parental Occupation 


Academic High School 


Vocational High School 


Proprietors 


32.0 

14-7 
19.2 

5-6 
4.6 

•4 
1.9 

•9 

•4 

1.8 

1-3 
.1 

•3 

.0 

•5 

3-2 


18.0 


Professional service 


4.6 
10.5 
6.5 
7-5 
6.5 
2 6 


Managerial service 


Commercial service 


Clerical serv'ice 


Artisan-proprietors 


Agricultural service 


Building trades 


13.8 

5-9 

•3 

5-9 

5-2 

2 6 


Machine trades 


Printing trades 


Miscellaneous trades 


Transportation service 


Public service 


Personal service 


I*- 3 

■3 

4.6 


Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 


Unknown 


3-9 




Total 


100. 


100 







62 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



In Figure 14 an attempt has been made to measure the relative 
attractiveness of the two schools to the several occupational divisions. 
It is based on the number of children in the vocational school for every 
one hundred from the same group in the academic school. In order to get 
numbers sufficiently large to insure reliabiUty, several of the labor 
groups were combined, as indicated in the diagram. The difference 
between the two extremes is indeed striking. The proportion of children 



Common labor (35°) 
Transportation, public and personal service (223) 

Manufacturing and mechanical trades (203) 

Artisan-proprietors (s6) 

Clerical service (52) 

Proprietors (22) 

Managerial service (21) 

Commercial service (20) 

Professional service (12) 



All occupations 



(39) 



■ 

■ 
I 



Fig. 14. — Showing for each occupational group the number of students (both 
sexes and all classes) in the vocational high school for every 100 from the same group 
in the academic high school. Data from 306 students in the former and 778 in the 
latter. Mt. Vernon. 

from the professionals, the commercial workers, the managers, and the 
proprietors attending the vocational school is very small. The reverse 
is true for the children of the laboring classes, particularly laborers of 
the lower grades. The clerical workers and the artisan-proprietors 
occupy an intermediate position. 

ST. LOUIS 

The course of study in the St. Louis High Schools is more complex 
than that in any of the other cities studied. There are four-year, 
two-year, and one-year courses. Altogether, thirteen different curricula 
are offered, of which two are for girls exclusively, three for boys only, 
and eight for both boys and girls. The following descriptive statements 
adapted from the printed outhnes distributed to the parents will give 
the reader some notion of the character of these curricula: 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 63 

I. Four-year courses. — Seven four-year courses are offered with a 
basic requirement of one half-year community civics, one half-year of 
vocations, three or four years of EngUsh, and one or more years of 
history common to all. These curricula with their distinctive features 
are: 

1. General course. — One or more years of science and other subjects 
to be chosen from specified lists for each half-year. In the third 
and fourth years of this course, there is a wide election offered, 
including units peculiar to other courses. 

2. Scientific course. — Four years of mathematics; four years of 
science; two or three years of a foreign language. 

3. Classical course. — Four years of Latin; two or three years of one 
other foreign language, if elected; one, two, or three years of 
mathematics, if elected; one or two years of science. 

4. Fine-arts course. — Four years of art or music; one or more years 
of science; one or more years of mathematics, if elected; two or 
more years of a foreign language, if elected. 

5. Manual training course. — Three or four years of manual training; 
three or four years of mechanical drawing ; two, three, or four years 
of mathematics; one, two, or three years of science; two years of 
a foreign language, if elected. 

6. Home economics course. — Four years of household arts; three or 
four years of science; one, two, or three years of mathematics, 
if elected; and two or three years of a foreign language, if elected. 

7. Commercial course. — Four years of commercial branches grouped 
in sequence; one, two, or three years of mathematics, if elected; 
one, two, or three years of science; two or three years of a foreign 
language, if elected. 

II. Two- and one-year vocational courses. — Four two-year and two 
one-year vocational courses are offered. Very little academic material 
is included in these curricula. They are as follows: 

1. Two-year manual training course. — Joinery, turning, pattern- 
making, forging, tool-making, machine-shop practice, mechanical 
drawing, English, mathematics, and physics. 

2. Two-year home economics course. — Household arts, English, 
botany, physiology, and chemistry. 

3. Two-year commercial course. — Business English, commercial arith- 
metic, civics, commercial geography, penmanship, bookkeeping, 
stenography, typewriting, and spelling. 

\ 



64 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

4. Two-year vocational course in printing. — Printing, shop practice, 
English, drawing, civics, vocations, industrial history, shop 
mathematics. 

5. One-year bookkeeping course. — Business EngHsh, commercial 
arithmetic, penmanship, spelling, bookkeeping, and typewriting. 

6. One-year stenographic course. — Business English, spelling, stenog- 
raphy, and typewriting. 

The number of children from each of the occupational groups 
pursuing each of the curricula is given in Table XXI for the entire high- 
school population. Separate data for the boys and girls are presented. 
For convenience, since the number taking either course is small, the 
one-year bookkeeping course and the one-year stenographic course are 
combined under the "one-year commercial course." A glance at the 
totals shows practically all the girls enrolled in four curricula, namely, the 
general, four-year commercial, four-year home economics, and two-year 
commercial. Likewise, almost 90 per cent of the boys are found in the 
general, scientific, four-year commercial, and four-year manual training 
courses. It is interesting to note the status of the classical course with 
its 67 boys and girls, a mere vestige that tells very little of its glorious 
past. This curriculum has undoubtedly seen better days. Several of 
the short vocational courses have not, as yet at least, gripped the atten- 
tion of children of high-school age. With the other curricula offered 
it is clear that St. Louis is offering its children an enriched high-school 
curriculum. 

Let us see how the boys and girls representing the different social 
groups react to this diversity of curricular opportunity. A careful 
examination shows practically the same tendencies at work here as those 
discovered in Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon. The case is not quite so 
clear, perhaps, because the lines between the courses are not so plain. 
St. Louis has no curriculum that can be regarded strictly as college 
preparatory, unless it be the httle-patronized classical course. Perhaps 
the general course and the scientific course come nearest to it. At 
least, they do not point out into industry. 

Among the girls the home economics course is apparently about 
equally popular with all the occupational groups, although some slight 
tendency toward a greater proportional representation in this course on 
the part of the non-labor groups is observable. This constitutes some 
evidence favorable to the contentions of certain critics of the courses 
offered in this field that they do not prepare for wage-earning. The 
four-year commercial course attracts the daughters of the manual 



PARENT-\L OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 



65 



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66 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



laborers more than the girls from other classes. But the most significant 
comparison is the one to be drawn between the general and the two-year 
commercial courses. In Table XXII this comparison is made. Here 
is given the percentage of the girls from each of the occupational groups 
found in these two curricula. On the one hand, professional service 
leads in the general course and takes last place in the two-year com- 
mercial course with 62.4 per cent and 5.9 per cent respectively of its 

TABLE XXII 

Percentage of Girls from Each Occupational Group Pursuing the General 

AND the Two- Year Commercial Courses, St. Louis High 

Schools, All Classes, December, 1920 



Parental Occupation 

Professional service 

Agricultural service 

Commercial service 

Managerial service 

Proprietors 

Clerical service 

Public service 

Printing trades 

Transportation service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Machine trades 

Building trades 

Common labor 

Personal service . . . . 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 
Miscellaneous trades 

All occupations 



General Course 



Two-Year Commercial 
Course 



5-9 
18.2 

14-3 
II. 8 
II .2 
16. 1 
16.7 
30.0 
22.4 
25-7 
35-2 
34-6 
Si-2 
340 
50.0 
43-1 



44 I 



18.5 



representatives in the two courses. On the other hand, but 20.4 per 
cent of the girls whose fathers are engaged in the miscellaneous trades 
have chosen the first course; and 51.2 per cent of the daughters of 
common laborers are pursuing the second. The other groups fall in 
between these two extremes, with the non-labor groups inclining dis- 
proportionately toward the general course and the labor groups toward 
the two-year commercial course. Many other interesting observations 
will be made here by the careful reader. 

As in Bridgeport, the boys appear to be less influenced in their 
choice of courses than the girls by the social groups from which they 
come. An examination of Table XXI shows the labor groups somewhat 
better represented in the commercial and manual training courses than 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION .\ND THE COURSE OF STUDY 



67 



the other groups, but only sHghtly so. This may mean that the outlook 
from the four courses, in which most of the boys are enrolled, is, after all, 
very much the same. The commercial course for the girls probably 
means preparation for a clerical position to be entered upon immediately 
after leaving school, whereas the same course taken by a boy may mean, 
particularly in the Middle West, college preparation. Data secured 
in response to the question about expectations following graduation 
suggest this conclusion. More evidence appears in Figure 15 



m 



Common labor 


(38.S) 


Personal service 


(23-5) 


Building trades 


(23.4) 


Machine trades 


(20.1) 


Transportation service 


(18.3) 


Miscellaneous trades 


(17-7) 


Public service 


(1S.6) 


Artisan-proprietors 


(15.5) 


Agricultural service 


(lo.s) 


Printing trades 


(lo.o) 


Managerial service 


(8.0) 


Commercial service 


(7.1) 


Clerical service 


(6.0) 


Proprietors 


(4.8) 


Professional service 


(3.4) 


All occupations 


(10.4) 




Fig. 15. — Showing the percentage of boys from each occupational group pursuing 
the two- and one-year vocational courses. St. Louis high schools (white). 

which is presented the percentage of the boys in each of the occupational 
classes registered in the one- and two-year vocational courses. Obviously 
these curricula do not point collegeward. Consequently, it is not sur- 
prising to see rather pronounced differences among the groups. Here is 
the already familiar order with common labor at one extreme, and 
professional service at the other. 

Before leaving the returns from St. Louis it will be worth while to 
examine with some care the social composition of the boys and girls 
to be found in two of the curricula registering but few students — the 
classical and fine arts courses. The first is distinctly reminiscent of 
the time when secondary education was avowedly selective in its 
character; and the second is one of the newer courses which is supposed 



68 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



to rest on the possession of some special talent or is regarded as a prepara- 
tion for a life of leisure. The occupations of the fathers of the students 
(boys and girls combined) pursuing these two curricula are given in 
percentages in Table XXIII. Apparently the prestige of the classical 
course carries but little weight with the laboring classes. Note, on the 
other hand, the extraordinarily disproportionate representation of the 

TABLE XXIII 

Percentage Distribution of the Occupations of the Fathers of 67 Students 

Pursuing the Classical Course and 189 the Fine Arts Course 

in the St. Louis High Schools, All Classes 



Parental Occupation 



Classical Course 



Fine Arts Course 



Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumbei -workers, fishermen 

Common labor 

Unknown 



Total. 



150 

17.9 

8.9 

II. 9 



1-5 
4-5 
30 
1-5 



30 



1-5 



29. 1 
II. 6 
22.2 
12.2 
5-8 
I . I 

4-7 
1.6 

3-7 
•5 
1. 1 
2.1 
I . I 



professionals. Almost one-third of these students come from this group 
which constitutes less than 9 per cent of the total high-school population. 
The fine arts course also is not a course for the children of labor, as is 
clearly seen. To what extent this is due to lack of talent is an 
unanswered question. But it is probable that the explanation is to be 
found in neither the presence nor the absence of talent, but in circum- 
stance. 

SEATTLE 

In the high schools of Seattle there are seven curricula, of which 
six are open to the girls and six to the boys, although practically no 
boys are found in one of them. They are all four-year courses with the 
opportunity for electives ranging all the way from seven to eighteen 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 69 

credits^ out of a total of thirty-two. In addition to a uniform require- 
ment for all courses of six credits in English and two credits in 
United States History and Civics, the seven curricula may be described 
as follows: 

I. The academic course emphasizes the traditional academic subjects 
and points toward the higher education, although each of the curricula 
offered may prepare for college, if the student exercises a little prudence 
in the choice of electives, because of the latitude in the entrance require- 
ments among the colleges of the West. This course includes five credits 
in mathematics, two in science, two in history besides the common 
requirement, four in one foreign language, and eleven electives. 

II. The general course is designed for those students who are not 
definitely decided on their educational future. Over one-half of the 
required number of credits are elective. The prescribed subjects are 
two credits in algebra, two in history, two in laboratory science, and 
eighteen electives. 

III. The commercial course prepares for clerical positions and includes 
seventeen credits in the ordinary commercial subjects, allowing but 
seven elective credits. 

IV. The industrial arts course is really not so industrial as it sounds. 
But six credits in shopwork and mechanical drawing are required. 
The remainder of the course is composed of mathematics, history, 
laboratory science, and eleven elective credits. 

V. The home economics course includes two credits in mathematics; 
two in chemistry; six in food, clothing, and design; two in household 
management; and twelve electives. 

VI. The art and crafts course makes but a narrow appeal, although 
it does provide opportunity for the election of twelve credits. It 
prescribes two credits in mathematics, two in laboratory science, and 
eight in art or craft. 

VII. The music course likewise attracts but few students. It is 
composed of two credits in mathematics, two in history, four in foreign 
languages, two in science, six in music, and eight electives. 

The facts pertaining to the selection of curricula are presented in 
Table XXIV. The academic course is seen to be the most popular 
among both girls and boys. The number taking the art and crafts and 
fine arts courses is very small, almost negligible. A comparison with 
Bridgeport and St. Louis shows the commercial course to attract a much 
larger proportion of the girls in the East than in the West. Thus in 

' A credit here means a semester's work in a particular subject. 



70 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Bridgeport 50.2 per cent of all the girls in the high school are enrolled 
in this course; while in St. Louis this percentage drops to 40.8; and in 
Seattle it drops still farther to 26.1. It is possible that this difference 
may be explained in terms of reduced expectations of college attendance 
on the part of girls in the East due to the practical absence of the great 
co-educational state universities common in the West. 



TABLE XXIV 

Selection of Curricula by Children from the Various Occupational Groups 
IN the Seattle High Schools, All Classes 





Girls 


Boys 


Parental 
Occupation 




1 
■0 


2 

v 

a 

(U 




"3 
■5 

a 
e 

u 



c 

4) 

IS 

K 


u 

■a 
c 

1 


3 


1 


1 

< 


■3 

1 



3 

u 

s 
e 

d 


'S 

3 

■a 

G 


1 
< 


3 




251 

224 
226 
140 
54 
5.S 
20 
8.3 
60 
14 
23 

13 

8 

9 

37 


131 

84 
151 
77 
51 
36 
22 
114 
68 
IS 
21 

30 
15 

25 

17 
20 

42 


III 

36 

135 
44 
43 
43 
39 

102 

94 

6 

24 

84 
27 
16 

14 
17 
38 


29 
18 

53 

23 

18 

18 

6 

34 

26 

I 

8 

22 

6 

10 

4 

5 

12 

293 


20 
19 

25 

10 

6 

7 

3 

19 

10 

I 

I 

S 

I 


I 
4 
2 

I 
I 

I 
3 
3 

1 
I 


543 
385 
592 
295 

173 
157 
91 
415 
261 
37 
77 

201 
58 
64 

43 

51 

129 


297 

187 

227 

128 

56 

63 

23 

89 

67 

12 

19 

62 
II 
10 

3 
10 

49 


151 
77 

144 
64 
32 
48 
24 

112 
65 
10 
17 

54 
13 
10 


19 

45 


40 
20 
40 
23 
10 
14 

8 

46 

12 

2 

6 

15 

8 
8 

4 

7 

12 


36 

34 
48 
23 
10 
II 
II 

59 

44 
4 

14 
3 

7 

4 

I 

13 


2 

I 
I 

I 
3 
3 

I 


526 


Professional service . . 
Managerial service. . . 
Commercial service.. 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service.. 
Artisan-proprietors.. . 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades. 
Transportation 


460 

239 

108 

136 

67 

309 

191 

28 

44 

145 


Public service 


35 

35 

17 

37 
120 


Miners, lumber- 


























Total 


1,282 


919 


933 


127 


18 


3,572 


1,313 


891 


275 


324 


12 


2,81s 







As in the other cities studied, the girls from the different occupational 
groups in the Seattle high schools exhibit characteristic tendencies in 
the choice of curricula. This is brought out best in Table XXV, in 
which the probable distribution of one hundred girls from each of the 
groups over the six courses offered is given. The arrangment of the 
table is based on the proportion to be found in the academic course. 
There is seen to be a distinct negative correlation between choice of the 
academic and choice of the commercial course. For example, fifty- 
eight out of every hundred of the girls whose fathers are engaged in the 
professional pursuits are registered in the former course, while but nine 
are taking the latter. On the other hand, among the daughters of public 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 



71 



servants, chiefly policemen and city firemen, but fourteen out of a 
hundred are to be found in the former and forty-six in the latter course. 
On the whole, the-jifliiz labor groups incline toward the academic and the 
labor groups tow g jd the commercial course. The other courses appear 
to be almost equally attractive to both of these groups, although there is 
perhaps some slight observable disposition on the part of the girls whose 



TABLE XXV 

Probable Distribution of 100 Girls from Each Occupational Group Over 

THE Six Courses Open to Girls in the Seattle High Schools, 

All Classes 



Parental Occupation 


Academic 
Course 


General 
Course 


Com- 
mercial 
Course 


Home 
Econom- 
ics 
Course 


Art and 
Crafts 
Course 


Music 
Course 


Total 


Professional service 

Commercial service 

Proprietors 


58 
48 
46 
38 
37 
34 
31 
30 
29 

23 
22 
20 
20 

19 
18 

14 


22 
26 

24 
26 

41 
23 
30 

27 

15 
26 
24 

39 

27 

40 

39 
26 


9 
IS 
21 

23 
17 
27 
25 
31 
42 
36 
43 
25 
39 

33 
33 
46 


5 

8 

5 
9 
3 
12 
II 
II 
II 
10 

7 

16 

8 

8 
10 
10 


S 
3 

4 
4 

2 

4 
3 

I 

3 
4 
3 


I 

I 

I 


100 
100 


Managerial service 

Printing trades 

Agricultural service 

Clerical service 


100 
LOO 
100 


Miscellaneous trades .... 
Transportation service . . . 

Machine trades 

Artisan-proprietors 

Personal service 


100 
100 
100 
100 
100 


Buildings trades 


5 


I 




Miners, lumber-workers, 
fishermen 


100 


Common labor 






100 


Public service 


2 


2 








All occupations 


36 


26 


26 


8 


4 




100 



fathers are engaged in manual labor to choose the general course in 
disproportionate numbers. This, in all probability, is due to greater 
uncertainty about the future on the part of these students. It is 
interesting to note here, as in St. Louis, the failure of the home eco- 
nomics course to make any large appeal to the daughters of laborers. 
It seems that, for various reasons, these girls are interested primarily 
in courses that relate rather definitely to wage-earning. 

Table XXVI, showing the probable distribution of one hundred 
boys from each occupational group over the five curricula open to boys, 
is arranged on the same principle as the table immediately previous giving 
similar facts for the girls. The two curricula to be contrasted here are 



72 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



the academic and general courses. The first draws especially from the 
non-labor groups, with professional service leading, while the students 
choosing the second come in larger proportion from the labor groups. 
The contrast is not so pronounced as among the girls, but it is sufi&ciently 
marked to be significant. It is surprising, perhaps, that there are no 

TABLE XXVI 

Probable Distribution of too Boys from Each Occupational Group Over the 

Five Curricula Open to Boys in the Seattle High Schools, 

All Classes 



Parental Occupation 


Academic 
Course 


General 
Course 


Industrial 
Arts 
Course 


Com- 
mercial 
Course 


Art and 
Crafts 
Course 


Total 


Professional service 

Proprietors 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 


59 

57 
53 

52 

49 
47 
43 
43 
43 
35 
34 
31 

29 

29 

27 

17 


24 
29 
27 
30 
31 
35 
39 
36 
37 
34 
36 
37 
36 
29 

51 
35 


II 

7 
10 

9 

II 

8 

4 

14 

10 

23 
16 

9 
19 
20 

3 

24 


6 

7 
10 

9 

9 

10 

14 
7 
10 
6 
12 
23 
15 
22 

19 

24 


2 
2 

I 


100 
100 
100 
100 


Managerial service 

Agricultural service 

Miscellaneous trades 

Printing trades 


100 
100 
100 
100 


Transportation service .... 
Machine trades 


100 

TOO 


Artisan-proprietors 

Public service 


100 
100 


Building trades 

Personal service 


100 
100 


Common labor 


100 


Miners, lumber-workers, 
fishermen 


100 






All occupations 


47 


32 


II 


10 




100 



clear tendencies shown in the choice of the two vocational curricula — 
the industrial arts and commerical courses. It is true that certain of the 
labor groups are much better represented in these curricula than any of 
the non-labor groups. On the other hand, some of the labor groups 
have very poor representation. It should be borne in mind, however, 
that none of these Seattle curricula points exclusively toward industry 
or commerce and away from college. 



CONCLUSION 



Certain conclusions stand out very clearly in the Hght of this analysis 
of practice in the several cities studied. The children coming into the 
public high school from the different occupational groups exhibit differ- 



PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE COURSE OF STUDY 73 

ent ten deiKJes in their election of curricula. Those occupations that 
have relatively poor representation in the high school patronize the 
"practical" courses, the courses which point outward toward wage- 
earning rather than upward toward higher education. The lower the 
grade of occupation, the stronger this tendency manifests itself. The 
girls are apparently influenced in larger measure than the boys by the 
occupational status of the parent. 



CHAPTER IX 

PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING 
GRADUATION 

Closely related to a student's choice of curricula are his expectations 
following graduation, since presumably the various curricula are organ- 
ized around different objectives. This relation, however, is not always 
sustained in individual cases. Many instances can be found of students 
pursuing the college preparatory curricula who do not expect to attend 
college. And one would not have to seek far to find children enrolled in 
the commercial course who are not planning to enter into clerical work. 
Consequently it will be of interest to make a study of the relation 
between parental occupation and expectations following graduation 
from high school as a supplement to the material presented in the 
immediately previous chapter. 

In each of the four cities studied this question was asked of each 
student: "What do you intend to do following graduation from high 
school ? " There were, of course, a few students in each high school who 
reported that they did not intend to complete the course. In tabulating 
the data their intentions on leaving the high school were accepted in 
lieu of the usual statement of expectations following graduation. 

But of what value are the responses to this question ? May they be 
regarded as possessing any measure of truth ? Certainly, as indices of 
what these students are actually going to do after graduation, they 
are far from satisfactory. In considering their future prospects, these 
young people in all probability err on the side of optimism, as most 
people would. Many of those who, in their Freshman year, speak with 
some confidence of their intentions to attend college or university after 
graduation from high school will never complete the high-school course, 
let alone grace the halls of an institution of higher learning. On the 
other hand, there will probably be some whose plans to attend college 
will crystallize only toward the end of their stay in the secondary school. 
It is not maintained, therefore, that these responses have a great deal 
of objective vaHdity; but it is believed that group-differences, to the 
degree they are revealed here, have significance. It seems likely that 
the optimistic bias would be exhibited equally by the various groups, 
or at least that the bias, in so far as it exists in varying measure among 

74 



OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 75 

the groups, would tend to minimize rather than exaggerate the differences 
that actually exist. 

Since the expectations of the two sexes following graduation are 
somewhat different, the presentation divides itself into two parts, the 
one deahng with the girls, and the other with the boys. The order 
of treatment will be as just indicated. 

EXPECTATIONS OF THE GIRLS 

For purposes of tabulation, the various activities into which the 
girls expect to go are classified under twelve headings, namely, college 
or university, normal school, business college, other school, professional 
service, clerical service, commercial service, industrial service, home, 
travel, work, and undecided. The meaning of each of these is clear 
with the possible exception of the eleventh, work. In some cases the 
response was the very general statement that the student intended to 
go to work after leaving the high school. The kind of work was not 
specified. Cases of this type are included under this category. 

The gross data for the four cities are given in Table XXVII. Accord- 
ing to this table, the largest group, 36.5 per cent of the entire number, 
are intending to go to college. Over 13 per cent are going to normal 
school, business college, or other higher schools. Of those who do not 
plan to continue their education, by far the largest number, practically 
one-fourth of the total, are going into the clerical occupations. About 
5 per cent will engage in professional service, chiefly nursing and teach- 
ing. Very few are looking toward either the commercial or industrial 
occupations. Practically none are looking forward to travel. Perhaps 
the most interesting fact in the table is the number expecting to remain 
at home. Only 82 of the 9,286 girls reporting have their eyes on the 
domestic life, according to their own statements. Of course these 
returns should not be taken too seriously, since at this particular point 
the question about expectations is a rather personal one. Although 
there were a few girls who state very frankly that they expect to "get 
married," the ordinary high-school girl has a natural reluctance about 
exhibiting too much certainty about a very uncertain matter. Neverthe- 
less, it is apparent that the great majority of the girls of this generation 
are looking forward to an active life in the world of affairs after leaving 
the high school. Apparently they are not so domestic as were their 
mothers and grandmothers. In addition to these statements of specific 
expectations, a small group merely report that they are going to work, 
and 14.4 per cent are undecided. In conclusion, the general observation 



76 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



may be made that in these high schools the attention of the girl students 
is rather strongly directed toward a continued education, and especially 
toward the college. 



TABLE XXVII 

Expectations Following Graduation of 9,286 Girls in the High Schools of 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 



Expectations Following 
Graduation 



Bridge- 
port 



Mt. 
Vernon 



St. Louis 



Seattle 



Total 



Per- 
centage 



College 

Normal school 

Business college . . . . 

Other school 

Professional service . 
Commercial service . 

Clerical service 

Industrial service . . 

Home 

Travel 

Work 

Undecided 



Total. 



241 

294 

16 

25 

39 



443 



4 

49 

34 

25 

6 

136 



132 



1,340 
146 
166 

63 
197 

ID 

I ,208 

21 

64 



589 



I ,624 

81 

247 

lOI 

217 



522 

12 
13 



201 

549 



3,391 

525 

478 

223 

478 

16 

2,309 

35 

82 

8 

401 

1,340 



516 



3,978 



3,572 



9,2<: 



If the returns from the various cities are examined and compared, 
some interesting differences are noted. Bridgeport and Seattle represent 
the two extremes. In the former but^9^j)er cent of the girls are 
intending to go to college as compared with 45.5 per cent in the latter. 
The other side of this comparison is found in the proportion expecting 
to enter the clerical occupations. In Bridgeport this proportion mounts 
to 36.3 per cent, while in Seattle it falls to but 14.6 per cent. These 
differences are probably to be explained in terms of population and 
geography. As contrasted with Seattle, the population of Bridgeport 
is predominantly industrial and largely of the new immigration. Also 
the tradition of a higher education for women is not so strong in the 
East as in the West. The presence of a great state university, the 
University of Washington, is another important factor in explaining the 
strong college tendency among the girls of the Seattle high schools. 

The table also shows considerable variation in the proportion of 
students looking toward the normal school. In Bridgeport 24 per cent 
of the girls are planning to attend teacher-training institutions. In 
Mt. Vernon, on the other hand, this proportion falls to .8 per cent; 
and in Seattle and St. Louis it is but 2^ and 3.7 per cents respectively. 



OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 77 

This large number in Bridgeport intending to enter the normal school 
probably explains in some measure the small proportion planning to enter 
college. The presence of a city normal school in Bridgeport is an 
important factor in accounting for this situation, although the Harris 
Teachers' College of St. Louis does not seem to have a similar efifect 
there. Another matter worthy of comment in this connection is the 
small number of students outside of Bridgeport thinking about entering 
teacher-training institutions. Clearly these cities are not producing 
their own future teachers. 





^^ 






^ 






^v^ 








~~^~-~-~^__ 








Clerical Semce 



Freshman 



Senior 



Sophomore Junior 

Fig. 16. — Showing the percentage of girl students in each of the high-school 
years intending either to go to college or to enter clerical service following graduation. 
Data from 9,286 girls in the high schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and 
Seattle. 



The characteristic differences in the intentions exhibited by the 
students in the four years of the high school are shown graphically in 
Figure 16 in which the percentage of girls in each year expecting to go to 
college is compared with the corresponding percentage for those planning 
to enter the clerical occupations. The proportion looking toward the 
college begins at 28.5 per cent in the Freshman year and rises to 45. 8_ 
per cent in the Senior year. The clerical service shows just the reverse 
tendency. In the first year of the high school there are actually more 
girls expecting to engage in clerical work on leaving high school than 
there are preparing for college, 30.4 as against 28.5 per cent, to be exact. 



78 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



This proportion, however, falls rapidly, as the other rises, and in the 
last year of the high school it is reduced to 14.3 per cent. This is an 
excellent exhibition of the strength of the college-preparatory tradition 
in the public high school. It is to be explained in terms of both ehmina- 
tion and adaptation. 

We come now to the more important part of the study — that pertaining 
Jo^ the parental occupation. A detailed table showing the complete 
distribution of the girls from each occupational group will not be given, 

TABLE XXVIII 

Percentage of Girls from Each Occupational Group Intending to Go to 
College, Enter Normal School, or Engage in Clerical Work on Leav- 
ing High School. Data from 9,286 Students in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, 
St. Louis, and Seattle 



Parental Occupation 

Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service ; . . . . 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 
Common labor 

All occupations 



College 



Normal School 



Clerical Service 



4-3 



12.0 

7-7 
19.9 

17-3 
27.4 
21.8 
36.9 
35-7 
40.3 
26.0 

45-9 
30.8 

32.3 
37-1 
29.8 
50.0 



36.5 



5-7 



24.9 



since it would contribute nothing of consequence that cannot be presented 
in a more simplified form. The percentage of students intending to 
pursue each of the three more important lines of activity is presented 
for each set of occupations in Table XXVIII. It shows that 49.4 per 
cent of the girls whose fathers or guardians are occupied as proprietors 
are expecting to attend college, 4.5 per cent to go to normal school, and 
12.0 per cent to enter the clerical service following graduation from 
high school. The remaining 34.1 per cent, not included in this table, 
are distributed over the other nine activities. Tremendous differences 
among the occupational groups are observed. The percentage intending 
to go to college ranges all the way from 61.8 for professional service to 
13^5 for the miscellaneous trades. In the main, the labor groups are 



OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 79 

low and the non-labor groups high in the frequency of college expecta- 
tions^ The reverse is true with respect to the proportion planning to 
enter the clerical occupations. Note the range from 7.7 per cent for 
professional service to 50.0 per cent for common labor. The normal 
school apparently is attracting the attention of students from the various 
occupations impartially. In no single group do we find any marked 
tendency toward teacher-training institutions. 

Special attention is directed in Table XXIX to the composition of 
that group of girls in the high school who are intending to go to college. 

TABLE XXIX 

Percentage Distribution of the Occupations of the Fathers or Guardians 
OF 3,391 Girls in All Four High-School Years and of 688 Girls in the 
Senior Year Who Are Intending to Go to College. Bridgeport, Mt. 
Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 



Parental Occupation 


All Four Years 


Senior Year 


Proprietors 


24.6 

15.6 

19.0 

II. 8 

S-7 

2.4 

2.7 

3-7 
3-8 

I.O 

1-4 

3-3 

1.0 

.8 

•3 

•5 

2.4 


24.4 


Professional service 


17.7 
20.3 
12 . 2 


Managerial service 


Commercial service 


Clerical service 


S-4 
2.1 


Agricultural service 


Artisan-proprietors 


2.6 


Building trades 


2.9 
.6 


Machine trades 


Printing trades 


Miscellaneous trades 


1 . 2 


Transportation service 


2.6 


Public service 


.3 


Personal service 


1 .0 


Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 


•3 
•3 

2.8 


Unknown 






Total 


100. 


100. 







One-half of the table gives in percentages the occupations of the fathers 
or guardians of the entire number of girls in all four years of the high 
school who are looking toward college; the other gives similar data 
for this particular group in the Senior year. It will be seen at once 
that these girls come from a very restricted section of the population. 
Five occupational groups (proprietors, professional service, managerial 
service, commercial service, and clerical service) include 76.7 per cent 
of all the girls expecting to enter college. In an earlier chapter it was 
observed that these five groups accounted for bu^ 71.5 per cent of all 



8o 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



the Students in the Senior year. Thus the group of girls going to college, 
enrolled in all four years, shows a considerably higher degree of selection 
than the complete registration of the Senior year. Relatively speaking, 
the daughters of the laboring classes do not look forward to the higher 
education. 

Furthermore, the second half of this table makes it clear that this 
selection continues to operate from year to year with the result that 
exactly 80 per cent of the girls in the last year of the high school who 



Proprietors 

Managerial service 

Professional service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Artisan-proprietors 

Transportation service 

Agricultural service 

Miscellaneous trades 

Personal service 

Printing trades 

Public service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 

Unknown 



Fig. 17. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians 
of 688 girls in the Senior year of the high school who are intending to go to college. 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle. 

are planning to go to college come from the five groups just named. 
These facts are presented graphically in Figure 17. If the artisan- 
proprietors and agricultural service be set aside as not strictly labor 
groups, the contribution of the laboring classes is reduced to but 12.5 per 
cent, and it seems altogether probable in the light of evidence already 
presented that this representation of labor will be further reduced when 
the roll is called in the Freshman year of college. These statements on 
the part of high-school Seniors are in some cases certainly no more than 
expressions of desire which will have to give way before the facts of Hfe. 
One other relation should be examined before passing to an analysis 
of the expectations of the high-school boys. It is the relation between 



8 I 


5 2 


4 3 


(24.4) 
(20.3) 


^^^^^ 




^^^^^ 




^^^" 




^^ 


^^^^ 






(17-7) 


^^^^* 






(12.2) 


B^l^^HI 


l^^l 


(5.4) 


HH 




(5-3) 


■1 








(2.9) 


^ 








(2.6) 


■i 








(2.6) 


■ 








(2.1) 


■ 








(1.2) 


■ 








(i.o) 


1 








(.6) 


1 








(.3) 


1 








(.3) 


1 








(.3) 


1 








(2.8) 


IH 









OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 8i 



the occupational groups in the different years of the high school. And 
for purposes of economy a comparison will be made between but two 
of the groups, the professional service and the machine trades. The 
former represents the tendency among the non-labor, while the latter 
is typical of the labor groups. The comparison is drawn in Figure i8. 
In the Freshman year the widest differences are noted. Here 58.5 per 
cent of the girls from professional homes are intending to go to college. 
All the forces of home and tradition are pointing them in that direction. 
It is a question that is settled for them. They do not have to think 
80 



60 



Professic nal Service . 



Freshman 



Sophomore Junior 

High-School Year 



Senior 



Fig. 18. — Showing for each of two occupational groups the percentage of girls in 
each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, 
St. Louis, and Seattle. 

about it. On the other hand, of the girls in this first year whose fathers 
are engaged in the machine trades, only 13.7 per cent are looking toward 
the college. As we pass up through the years, we see the proportion 
going to college increasing for each group, until in the Senior year, the 
percentage is 67.8 for the one, and 29.0 for the other. The increase for 
the machine trades is the larger. This is, in all probability, to be 
explained through the strong college-preparatory tradition which the 
student encounters in the high school, as well as through greater elimina- 
tion among those no intending to go on to college. 

EXPECTATIONS OF THE BOYS 

Naturally the classification of activities for the boys, though funda- 
mentally the same as that used for the girls, has its characteristic 
features. * ' Normal school ' ' and ' ' home ' ' are eliminated, and in addition 



82 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

to the remaining categories of the previous classification, "agriculture," 
"transportation service," and "public service" are included. Under 
these thirteen headings it was found possible to group the expectations 
of all the boys. 

TABLE XXX 

Expectations Following Graduation of 7,979 Boys in the High Schools of 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle 



Expectations Following 
Graduation 



Bridgeport 



Mt. 
Vernon 



St. Louis 



Seattle 



Total 



Per- 
centage 



College 

Business college 

Other school 

Professional service. . . 
Commercial service . . . 

Clerical service 

Industrial service 

Transportation service 

Public service 

Agriculture 

Travel 

Work 

Undecided 



655 
9 
40 
II 
32 
33 
33 



340 
6 
15 
7 
27 
46 
29 



47 
174 



27 
71 



1,822 

17 
80 

37 

114 

196 

92 

II 

3 

13 
2 

598 

574 



1,796 
27 
59 
24 
89 
44 

lOI 

5 

8 

12 

7 
168 

475 



4,613 

59 

194 

79 
262 

319 

255 

16 

13 
26 



1,294 



Total 1,037 



568 



3,559 



2,815 



7,979 



57-8 

.8 

2.4 

1 .0 

3-3 
4.0 

3-2 



•3 
.1 

IO-5 
16.2 



Table XXX shows the college tradition to be much stronger among 
the boys in these four cities than among the girls. Of all the boys in 
high school, 57.8 per cent are intending to go to college, according to 
their own statements. No other Hne of activity is attracting a suffi- 
ciently large number to be worthy of comment. SHghtly over 16 per cent 
are "undecided" and 10.5 per cent are just going to "work," but these 
categories are so general as to make it unnecessary to qualify the preced- 
ing statement. 

An examination of the facts for the different cities shows no such 
variation here as was found for the girls. In each city over one-half of 
the boys are looking toward the college. If Bridgeport and Seattle are 
compared, it is discovered that the percentages of such boys in the high 
schools of the two cities are almost identical, being 63.2 and 63.8 respec- 
tively. It will be remembered that the corresponding percentages for 
the girls were 19.4 and 45.5. These figures are illustrative of a tendency 
noted at several points in this study, namely, that the girls appear to 
represent the social class from which they come more than do the boys. 
The industrial and immigrant character of the Bridgeport population 



OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 83 

provides little stimulus toward a college education. The boys break 
over, the girls conform. 

These differences between the boys and the girls are brought out 
more clearly in Figure 19. From the first year to the last over 20 per 
cent more boys than girls are expecting to enter college. This does not, 
of course, mean that all these boys will eventually go to college, but it 
does indicate that they regard college preparation as a very good 
explanation of their registration in the high school. So far as the boys 
are concerned, it seems that the pubhc high school is predominantly 





^ 


--— 




„ 




..^'-''^ 










Boys 

Girls 



Freshman 



Sophomore Junior 

High-School Year 



Senior 



Fig. 19. — Showing the percentage of girls and the percentage of boys in each 
year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, 
and Seattle. 



a college-preparatory institution in spirit, in spite of all the concessions 
made to the practical needs of those whose education must end with 
the high school. This is not so true of the girls, because there is one 
curriculum in the high school which is very popular among them and 
which does point quite definitely to something besides the college — and 
that is the commercial course. Nothing comparable to it for the boys 
is to be found in the ordinary high school. 

Passing to a consideration of the relation between parental occupa- 
tion and expectations following graduation, we shall merely call attention 
to the proportion from each group expecting to go to college. An 
examination of the detailed distribution is of little significance. These 
facts are given in Table XXXI. A minute exposition of this table is 



84 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



unnecessary, since the results are much the same as those akeady dis- 
cussed for the girls. This difference alone should be noted, that the 
boys from the laboring classes exhibit a relatively stronger college 
tendency than do the girls. There is slight tendency for them to follow 
in the footsteps of their fathers. Most of them look on the high school 
as a means of lifting themselves out of the class into which they were 
born. 

TABLE XXXI 

Number and Percentage of Boys from Each Occupational Group Intending 
TO Go TO College after Graduation from High School in Bridge- 
port, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, All Classes 



Parental Occupation 

Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Agricultural service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades 

Machine trades 

Printing trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service 

Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 

Unknown 

Total 



Number 



Percentage 



1,152 
599 
815 
507 
229 
106 
163 
241 
264 

35 
116 
168 

38 

39 
3 

25 
"3 



4,613 



57. i 



That there are, after all, important differences among the groups 
is shown in Figure 20, which presents for the boys the same comparison 
made for the girls in Figure 18. The percentages from both the profes- 
sional service and the machine trades, in each year of the high school 
intending to go to college, are given. Large differences exist, but not 
so large as for the girls. 



STUDENTS NOT EXPECTING TO COMPLETE THE HIGH-SCHOOL COURSE 

As intimated at the beginning of this chapter, a few students were 
found who did not expect to complete the high-school course. It will 
be of interest to see from what elements in the population they come. 
Since the number in the three upper years is practically negligible, we 
shall confine our attention to the Freshman year. 



OCCUPATION AND EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 85 

Of the 6,782 students in the first year of the high schools in the four 
cities, only 451 expressed any doubt about their prospects of completing 
the course. Undoubtedly, many others were uncertain about the matter 
but failed to give expression to this uncertainty. The social composition 
of this group of children is given in Table XXXII. The first part of the 
table presents the actual distribution of the 451 students over the several 



So 



60 







_______ 




^"^ 


^ ^ - 


^ — " 


^,■0''^ 












Professio 
Machine 


Trades 



Freshman Sophomore Junior Senior 

High-School Year 

Fig. 20. — Showing for each of two occupational groups the percentage of boys in 
each year of the high school intending to go to college. Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon. 
St. Louis, and Seattle, 

occupational groups; the second, the percentage of the children from 
each of the groups who do not expect to complete the course. For 
purposes of comparison, this latter part of the table is the more significant. 
In the main, it shows the order aheady famihar to the reader. The 
children whose fathers are engaged in the professional occupations 
exhibit the least uncertainty about their stay in the high school. Only 
T^.T) per cent of them do not expect to complete the course. The children 
of common laborers, on the other hand, show the greatest uncertainty. 
Exactly 20 per cent, or one in every five, are doubtful about remaining 
until graduation. The other groups fall in between these two extremes, 
with the laboring classes occupying the less favorable positions. Because 
of the small number of cases involved in some of the groups, too much 



86 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



weight should not be attached to their records. The unfavorable 
showing of the printing trades, for example, is probably to be explained 
in this way. Likewise, the relatively favorable position of personal 

TABLE XXXII 

Occupations of the Fathers or Guardians of 451 Students in the First Year 
OF the High School Who Do Not Expect to Complete the Course, and 
the Percentage from Each Occupational Group Not Expecting to Com- 
plete THE Course. Data from 6,782 Freshmen in the High Schools of 
Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Loms, and Seattle 



Parental Occupation 


Number 


Percentage 


Proprietors 

Professional service . .... 


43 
17 
48 
22 
24 
17 
14 
78 
35 
9 
26 

38 

13 

6 

5 
24 
32 


3-6 

3-3 
4.6 


Managerial service 


Commercial service 


3-8 

6.0 
IO-5 

4-7 
13.0 

6.2 


Clerical service 

Agricultural ser\"ice 


Artisan-proprietors 

Building trades . 


Machine trades 


Printing trades 


13-0 
8.0 


Miscellaneous trades 


Transportation service 


9.0 


Public service 

Personal service 

Miners, lumber-workers, fishermen 

Common labor 


II. I 

6.3 
16. 1 
20.0 


Unknown 


13-3 




All occupations 


451 


6.6 



service would probably not be maintained in the face of more adequate 
data. On the whole, the evidence here supports the conclusions derived 
from the study of expectations following graduation. 



CHAPTER X 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE CULTURAL LEVEL 

All that has been said in the previous chapters about parental 
occupations has a very direct bearing on the relation of the pubhc high 
school to the various social and cultural levels within a community. 
All the evidence presented indicates that the high school is, in the main, 
serving the occupational groups representative of the upper social strata. 
This seems to be true even in those cities where the proportion of children 
of high-school age attending the public secondary school is relatively 
large. Of course, the writer is quite conscious of the fact that social 
lines do not follow rigidly the occupational divisions, but he is firmly 
convinced that, within limits, the occupation is an immensely important, 
if not a decisive, factor in determining social status. One does not 
canvass the ranks of manual labor while seeking out the select "Four 
Hundred" of urban society. To be sure, individuals occasionally break 
the bonds of an occupation without leaving it, but such cases are rare. 
Also, family connections and inheritance may set aside or shift the 
incidence of the decrees of occupation, as manifested in economic power, 
social prestige, and cultural advantages. These, however, are not the 
rule. Thus far, the study shows the high school drawing its population 
from the higher cultural levels. 

It is the purpose of this chapter to display an additional bit of 
evidence pointing in the same direction. In Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon, 
each high-school student was asked if there was a telephone in his home 
or the home in which he lived. This same question was asked the chil- 
dren in the compulsory continuation classes and the trade school in Bridge- 
port, as well as the pupils of the Mt. Vernon sixth grade. Returns on 
this item were not received from the students attending the Bridgeport 
Evening High School. 

Obviously, the possession of a telephone is not an adequate index 
of cultural level. The resulting dichotomous classification of people 
makes of modern society an entirely too simple affair. It divides people 
into two hard and fast divisions — those who have telephones and those 
who have not. Clearly this is an over-simpUfi cation. It reminds us of 
the much-advertised classification of all men into two classes- — ^the 
exploited and the exploiters. As useful as this may be for political 

87 



88 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

purposes, and as true as it may be as a description of certain 
aspects of modern society, it does not give a truthful picture of people 
who, as a rule, are neither black nor white, but, on examination, 
are found to represent varying shades of gray. 

Also, the possession of a telephone is not an infallible index of 
cultural level; some occupations demand a telephone in the home, 
others may require that it be absent. Undoubtedly, many persons do 
not have telephones in their homes who are living on a relatively high 
cultural plane and it is certain that the reverse is equally true. Yet, 
it must be admitted that the telephone is one of the many elements 
going to make up the cultured home. The correlation is not perfect, 
but it is positive. 

An ideal investigation would have included returns on many other 
items, such as the number and character of books, magazines, and 
newspapers in the home, various other material possessions indicating 
comfort and taste, the character of the conversation, the interest in 
music and art, and a host of other things that are already in the reader's 
mind. But obviously, this ideal was not attainable in a study bounded 
by the ordinary limitations of investigation. A thorough investigation 
along Hues here suggested of the cultural level and the standard of living 
of the homes from which high-school students come should make a 
valuable contribution toward the understanding of the problems which 
pubHc secondary education is facing in this country. 

The significance of the telephone, at least, as an index of general 
social and educational advancement, is shown in an impressive fashion 
in Figure 21. The data for this diagram are taken from the 19 17 
report of the Federal Census on Telephones, and An Index Number for 
State School Systems, by Ayres. The states, including the District of 
Columbia, were first arranged in order of their achievements in secondary 
education as measured by the percentage of the total school attendance 
credited to the high school in 19 18. They were then grouped into five 
groups of ten states each, except the last, in which there are but nine. 
And finally, the number of telephones per thousand inhabitants was 
averaged for each of these groups of states. This figure forms the basis 
for the construction of the bars in the diagram. 

It is clear that some relation between high-school attendance and 
the ratio of telephones to the population does exist. For the ten 
states ranking highest in the proportion of children attending high 
school, the average number of telephones per thousand inhabitants is 
145, while the corresponding figure for the nine states ranking lowest in 




PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE CULTURAL LEVEL 89 

this respect is but 41. The relation, however, is not pronounced among 
the states at the upper end of this distribution. The first ten exceed 
the record of the second ten by two points only; and there is much 
overlapping between these two groups if the facts for individual states 
are examined. For the remainder of the distribution, on the other 
hand, there is relatively little overlapping, and the difference from group 
to group is marked. Of course, no claim is advanced that there is any 
large and direct causal relation between the number of telephones in a 

Cal., Wash., Kan., Vt., N.H., Me., 
Mass., Nev., D.C., Iowa 

Wis., Ore., Neb., Colo., S.D., 
Minn., Idaho,' Ind., N.Y., Ohio 

Mich., N.J., Conn., Mont., R.I. 
Mo., 111., Utah, Del., Pa. 

Wye, N.D., Okla., Ariz., Md., 
Va., Tex., W.Va., La., Ky. 

Fla., N.M., Ala., Ga., N.C., 
Tenn., Ark., Miss., S.C. 

Fig. 21. — Showing the average number of telephones per 1,000 inhabitants in 
five groups of states in 19 17,' arranged in order of the percentage that high-school 
attendance was of total public-school attendance in 1918.^ 

^Bureau of the Census, Census of Electrical Industries, 1917, "Telephones," p. 22. 
» L. P. Ayres, An Index Number for Stale School Systems, p. 37. 

community and the attendance at high school. The one is certainly 
not the cause of the other. The installation of a telephone in a particular 
home will not, in some mysterious way, start the children of high-school 
age off to high school the following morning, if they have not been attend- 
ing. It is much more likely that the two phenomena are both the 
effects of a common cause. 

BRIDGEPORT 

In the city of Bridgeport there are 115 telephones for every thousand 
inhabitants. This is only a moderate record, since the number ranges 
in American cities from about 50 to 250. A more serviceable figure for 
the purposes of this study is the number of telephones in residences alone. 
On March 31, 192 1, there were 8,302 such telephones. Assuming that 
the average family in Bridgeport consists of approximately five persons, 
there were probably about 30,000 families in the city at the time the 
data for this study were collected. In other words, telephones are to 
be found in about 28 per cent of the homes. 

The percentage of children in the high school, the trade school, 
and the compulsory continuation classes, in whose homes there are 




go SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

telephones, is graphically presented in Figure 22. The children in the 
high school exhibit one extreme and those in the continuation classes 
the other; and the difiference is indeed large. Among the former, 
telephones are in almost 50 per cent of the homes, while in the latter 

High school (49.5) 

Trade school (i9-S) 

Continuation classes (7.1) 

Fig. 22. — Showing the percentage of children in the high school, the trade school, 
and the compulsory continuation classes in whose homes there are telephones. Data 
from 2,531, from 198, and from 421 cases respectively. Bridgeport, February and 
March, 192 1. 

this percentage drops to approximately 7. The former is far above, 
and the latter far below the percentage for the entire city, as given 
above. The students in the trade school constitute an intermediate 
group, although here the percentage with telephones is somewhat smaller 
than for the population as a whole. Clearly the high-school population 
is a socially favored group as measured by this single criterion of culture. 




Senior (60.3) 

Junior (57.2) 

Sophomore (50.1) 

Freshman (39- 7) 

Fig. 23. — Showing the percentage of students in each year of the Bridgeport 
High School in whose homes there are telephones. March, 192 1. 

A study of the four high-school years reveals the continued operation 
of this selective tendency. An inspection of Figure 23 shows this to be 
true. Here is given the percentage of students in each of the years or 
grades in whose homes there are telephones. This advances from 39.7 
per cent in the Freshman to 60.3 in the Senior year^ — an impressive 
advance. A word of caution, however, should be thrown out here in 
making an interpretation of the facts as presented. It seems probable 
that there are two influences working toward the same end. • On the 
one hand, there is the selective factor. A disproportionately large 
number of those eliminated from high school come from homes in which 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL .\ND THE CULTURAL LEVEL 



91 



there never have been and never will be telephones. On the other 
hand, the thought is worthy of consideration that continuation in high 
school may be a factor working for the installation of a telephone in 
the home. The social tone of the school and the associations formed 
probably cause these adolescents to bring pressure to bear on the parents 
favoring an expenditure for this purpose. There are many reasons why 
boys and girls of high-school age, particularly, should want telephones 
in their homes. Of course this factor operates outside, as well as 



College 



(72.7) 



Normal (50.0) 

Commercial (37.5) 



All girls 



(48.0) 




Fig. 24. — Showing the percentage of girls in each of three curricula in the Bridge- 
port High School in whose homes there are telephones. Data from 271, 376, and yi? 
cases respectively. March, 192 1. 



College 


(S8.9) 


General 


(58.3) 


Scientific 


(SI.4) 


Commercial 


(35-5) 


Industrial 


(28.9) 


All boys 


(31-3) 




Fig. 25. — Showing the percentage of boys in each of five curricula in the Bridge- 
port High School in whose homes there are telephones. Data from 397, 562, 24, 141, 
and 45 cases respectively. March, 192 1. 

inside, the high school, but the social life of the school conceivably 
accentuates it. At a,nyja.te, the difference from year to year is signifi- 
cant. 

In view of the findings already discussed, bearing on the relation 
of parental occupation to choice of curricula, there is a natural expecta- 
tion that the percentage of students coming from homes with telephones 
varies with the courses. And this is exactly the case, as shown in 
Figure 24 and Figure 25. In the former are presented the facts for the 
girls, and in the latter for the boys. The girls in the college course 
appear to be the most highly selected group. Almost three-fourths of 
these students have telephones in their homes. The boys in the same 



92 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

course show no such measure of selection, although for them, the per- 
centage having telephones is larger than in any other group of boys. 
The difference found here between the two sexes confirms the conclusions 
drawn in an earlier chapter that class Unes are more closely drawn 
among the girls than among the boys. x\t the other extreme, as might 
be expected, is the commercial course for the girls and the industrial 
arts course for the boys, with 37.5 per cent and 28.9 per cent respectively 
of the students pursuing the two courses having telephones in their 
homes. The boys in the commercial course have about the same record 
as the girls. The general course is somewhat above the average, the 
scientific course only slightly so. Likewise, the normal course seems 
to attract a constituency that is just about on a level with the high-school 
population as a whole with respect to this single item of information. All 
these facts constitute corroborative evidence of the socially selective 
character of the various curricula offered in the Bridgeport High School. 

MT. VERNON 

It has already been pointed out that the population of Mt. Vernon, 
since it is a suburb of New York City, is somewhat selective. In large 
measure, it is a middle-class residential community. Consequently, the 
ratio of telephones to the population is considerably higher than in 
Bridgeport and somewhat higher than in most American cities. 

Since data from the sixth grade are available, the contribution of 
Mt. Vernon to this part of the study has peculiar interest. While it 
is admitted that the pupils of the sixth grade are the product of a certain 
measure of selection, they do give a fairly reliable cross-section of the 
population of the city. Figure 26 is based on the percentage of children 
in each grade, for which data are available, in whose homes there are 
telephones. This percentage in the sixth grade is 44, and rises to 87.5 
in the last year of the high school. Although operating at a higher level, 
due to certain general differences between the two cities noted in the 
previous paragraph, the same tendencies appear here as in Bridgeport. 
From the sixth to the twelfth grade there is a constant increase in the 
proportion of children coming from homes having telephones. The 
curve rises somewhat more rapidly between the Freshman and Sopho- 
more years of the high schools than in any other interval. Whether 
this is a chance feature of the curve that might disappear with data from 
a larger number of cases, or to be explained in terms of especially rapid 
elimination between the first and second high-school years, it is impossible 
to speak with assurance. Conceivably it might be accounted for through 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE CULTURAL LEVEL 



93 



the operation of some other factor, such as the influence of high-school 
attendance on the installation of a telephone in the home. As a matter 



80 
60 












— — ■ 










y^"'"^ 




^ 


-^ 










40 
20 



























Sixth 



Freshman Sophomore Junior 
School Grade 



Senior 



Fig. 26. — Showing for each grade from the sixth to the Senior year of the high 
school the percentage of children in whose homes there are telephones. No data for 
the seventh and eighth grades. Mt. Vernon, May, 192 1. 

of fact, an examination of the enrolments in the different grades does 
indicate that the eKmination between the Freshman and Sophomore 
years is somewhat more pronounced than in the grades from the sixth 

TABLE XXXIII 

Percentage of Students Pursuing Each Curriculum in Whose Homes There 
Are Telephones, Mt. Vernon High Schools, All Years 



Curriculum 


Girls 


Boys 


Total 


Classical 

General 


92.2 
77.6 
61.5 
57-3 


86.9 
82.5 
79-7 
52.7 
34-9 
75-2 


89-5 
79.8 


Scientific 


77.8 


Commercial 


55.7 


Practical arts 


34-1 
75.5 


All curricula 


76.2 







to the ninth. Whatever the explanation, the student in the Senior 
year of the Mt. Vernon high schools in whose home there is no telephone 
has a very small representation. 



94 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

As in Bridgeport, there are interesting differences among the students 
choosing the various curricula. This is brought out clearly in Table 
XXXIII. The classical course, throughout the four high-school years, 
draws almost exclusively from students coming from homes where there 
are telephones. This tendency is somewhat more marked among the 
girls than among the boys. It seems that the girls from the well-to-do 
classes cling to the conventional course which carries with it the greatest 
social prestige. Note, in this connection, that in each case the two 
newer academic curricula (general and scientific) attract a somewhat 
smaller proportion of girls than boys from homes possessing telephones. 
The practical arts courses represent the other extreme, with the commer- 
cial course occupying an intermediate position. Telephones are found 
in the homes of only about one-third of the students pursuing the former 
curriculum. The fact that no girls in this course are from such homes 
should not be regarded seriously, since their number is very small. 



CHAPTER XI 
THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND FAMILY INFLUENCES 

In the American social order, large responsibilities respecting the 
care and education of the children are placed on the family. The 
measure of these responsibilities varies from place to place and it is 
not so great as in former times. The establishment of the public school 
and the passage of compulsory education laws have lightened the 
parental obligations and set limits to the parental authority in the 
domain of education. But, beyond the reach of these compulsory laws 
the family still holds its sway, and as a rule, the field of secondary 
education is in this realm. Consequently, it will be of interest to note 
the relation between certain family influences and the high-school 
population. 

To a degree, all the sociological factors discussed in this monograph 
either determine or reflect home conditions. This is certainly true of 
parental occupation which is the backbone of the study. In this chapter, 
attention will be directed to certain of the narrower aspects of family 
life, including the mortality of parents, the occupation of the mother, 
the number of children, and the order of birth. This is not a particularly 
formidable array of family influences, nor is it at all complete. A much 
more detailed study is needed. Nevertheless, the study of these few 
factors will be seen to be significant and suggestive. 

MORTALITY OF PARENTS 

Perhaps there is no single incident in the life of the family that is 
more calamitous and disorganizing than the death of one of the parents 
before the children have reached maturity. This means that the natural 
balance between organ and function in the family is destroyed, and a 
readjustment involving, particularly, the status of the children is 
necessary before stability may again be secured. Of course, among 
the more fortunate economic classes, a storm of this sort may be weath- 
ered without undue sacrifice on the part of individual members, but 
these do not form a majority of the population. Again, some might 
maintain that divorce or separation is as serious a disintegrating factor 
as death itself, and much could be said in support of this view. But, 
except in cases of desertion, such occurrences are the fruitage of a longer 

95 



96 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



or shorter process of growth, during which adjustments of various 
sorts may be contemplated and plans set in motion for their realization. 
However, regardless of the conclusion on this particular point, it is clear 
that the death of one of the parents is a serious matter. 

Returns on this question were received from all the groups studied. 
The percentage of students in the high schools of the four cities having 
one or both parents deceased is given by sex and by city in Table XXXIV. 
According to this table, 12.9 per cent of the entire number of 17,265 
students have one or both parents deceased. The mortality seems to be 
much higher among the fathers than among the mothers. This is 
distinctly true in each of the cities studied, and the data for the different 
high-school years show the same result. This is due to the greater age 
of the fathers and to the higher rate of mortality among men. Both 
parents are deceased in slightly over i per cent of the cases. 

An examination of the facts from the different cities shows some 
variation. The percentage is lowest in Bridgeport and highest in 
Seattle, ranging from 12.3 in the former to 13.4 in the latter. The 
explanation apparently is to be found in the proportion of children of 
high-school age attending high school. The city maintaining a relatively 
large high-school enrolment is, other things being equal, likely to have 
in its high schools a larger proportion of children handicapped in various 
ways than the city with the smaller proportionate enrolment. Evidence 
bearing on this point will be presented in other parts of the chapter. 

TABLE XXXIV 

Percentage of Stxtoents in the High Schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, 

St. Louis, and Seattle Having One or Both Parents Deceased. 

Data from 17,265 Cases 





Bridgeport 


Mt. Vernon 


St. Louis 


Seattle 


Total 


Parental Mortality 


3 




m 


C/2 


pq 


i^ 






v 


m 








■J-! 



m 







eq 


X 

c/; 

J3 


m 
7.8 

4-7 

• 9 

13-4 



7.8 

4-S 

1.2 

I3-S 


pq 

7.3 

4.0 

• 9 

12.2 





Father deceased 

Mother deceased 

Both parents deceased... . 
One or both deceased .. . . 


7.6 

5-3 

1 .2 

14. 1 


4.9 

4.4 

.8 

10. 1 


6.4 
4.9 

I.O 

12.3 


7-4 

4.2 

1.2 

12.8 


8.8 
3-4 
1.2 
13.4 


8.1 
3.8 
1.2 

13-1 


7.8 
3.8 

1.6 

13-2 


7-5 

3-7 

• 9 

12. 1 


7.6 
3.8 

1-3 
12.7 


8.1 

4.9 

.8 

13.8 


7.0 

4-5 

•9 

12.9 


7-S 

4-3 

I.I 

12.9 



The table also shows important differences between the sexes. The 
percentage of girls having one or both parents deceased is somewhat 
larger than the percentage of boys. This is true in each of the cities 
except Mt. Vernon, and is to be explained in the same way as the differ- 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL .\ND FAIMILY INFLUENCES 97 

ences among the cities. In every city, except Mt. Vernon, the number of 
boys in high school is appreciably less than the number of girls. The 
boys are consequently a more highly selected group with the result that 
fewer of them are handicapped by the loss of a parent. Putting it in 
another way, from the standpoint of securing a secondary education, 
the death of a parent is a more serious matter to the boy than to the 
girl. Apparently the burden of earning the family livelihood is more 
likely to fall on the one than on the other. 

A fundamental question should be raised here. Does the 12.9 per 
cent of children in high school who have lost one or both parents indicate 
that loss of a parent diminishes the educational opportunities of the 
child? What proportion of the children of high-school age have lost 
one or both parents by death? This is a rather difficult question to 
answer, although an answer may be approximated by using certain 
data furnished by the Federal Census. We know the average age of the 
high-school student and we know the average age of the parents of 
the student. Then assuming that the father was alive a year before the 
child was born, and taking from the United States Life Tables the 
mortality rates for the ages desired, it is an easy task to estimate the 
mortality of the parents of children of high-school age. The average 
age of high-school students is about sixteen years and the average ages 
of the fathers and mothers are approximately forty-eight and forty-three 
years respectively. Since all the fathers were alive seventeen years and 
all the mothers sixteen years before this census of high-school students 
was taken, it remains merely to compute the mortality rate for the seven- 
teen- and sixteen-year periods respectively, beginning at thirty-one years 
for the fathers and twenty-seven for the mothers. In this way, after 
making certain slight additional computations, it is found that at least 
24 per cent of children of high-school age have lost one or both parents 
by death. This is to be compared with the 12. q p er cent for high-school 
students. After making due allowance for the occasional student who 
reports a step-father or step-mother as an actual parent, and for the very 
rough method of calculation just used, the difference between these two 
percentages is altogether striking. There is apparently a strong relation 
between life or death of the parent and the educational opportunity of 
the child. 

There is much corroborative evidence secured in this investigation 
that supports the conclusions of the previous paragraph derived from 
estimates and calculations. The change from year to year in the per- 
centage of high-school students who have lost one or both parents is 



98 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



shown in Table XXXV. An examination of this table makes it clear 
that this percentage changes very little in passing from the Freshman 
to the Senior year. The difference of .4 per cent between these two years 
is too small to be of any significance whatsoever. Undoubtedly, during 
the three calendar years that separate the students in these two high- 
school grades, the parents of these students are not living under a condi- 
tion of immunity from death. There is no good reason for believing 
that this unwelcome visitor passes over the homes of high-school students. 
Assuming then that the life tables apply to the parents of these children 
as to other folk, and assuming further that there is no selective elimina- 
tion of those losing parents, the percentage of high-school students 
having one or both parents deceased should rise more than five points 
from the Freshman to the Senior year, or from 12.7 to at least 17.7. 

TABLE XXXV 

PERCENT.A.GE OF STUDENTS IN EaCH YeAR OF THE HiGH ScHOOL HAVING OnE OR 

Both Parents Deceased. D.a.ta from 17,265 Cases in Bridgeport, 
Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, Seattle 



High-School 
Year 


Bridgeport 


Mt. \ ernon 


St. Louis 


Seattle 


Total 


Freshman .... 
Sophomore . . . 

Junior 

Senior 


10.7 

143 
13.8 
10.8 


14.8 
10.9 
12.4 
14 .0 


12.4 
13.0 
12.6 
131 


13-4 
12.8 

139 
139 


12.7 
12.9 
13.2 
13 I 


Total. . . . 


12.3 


13 I 


12.7 


134 


12.9 



In Mt. Vernon, returns on this question of mortality of parents 
were secured from all children in the sLxth grade. Again assuming no 
selective elimination, the percentage of children who have lost one or 
both parents should be considerably higher in the high school than in 
the sixth grade. But such is not the case. The percentage is actually 
more than two points lower in the former than in the latter, being 13. i 
and 15.3 respectively. Reasoning from the life tables, the figure for the 
sixth grade approximates the expectation, although it is from i to 2 
per cent lower. Instead of being lower for the Senior year of the high 
school than for the sixth grade, it should be seven or eight points higher. 
The evidence here, therefore, reflects very clearly the importance of the 
life of the parent in promoting school attendance. 

The data from the various groups of children of high-school age are 
illuminating in this connection. In Figure 27 the group of 514 children 




PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND FAJVIILY INFLUENCES 99 

,of high-school age in Seattle is compared with the high-school population 
of the same city. Although the former are on the average slightly 
younger than the latter, 21.7 per cent of the children at work have lost one 
or both parents as against but 13.4 per cent of the high-school students. 

Children of high-school age at work (21.7) 
Children in high school (13-4) 

Fig. 27. — Showing percentage of children in each of two groups having one or 
both parents deceased. Data from 514 children of high-school age at work and 
6,387 children in high school. Seattle, 1919-20. 

The four groups from Bridgeport present an even more striking 
comparison. Examine Figure 28 in which the facts for the evening 
high school, the compulsory continuation classes, the state trade school, 
and the day high school are presented graphically. In interpreting this 
diagram it should be kept in mind that the students in the trade school 
are of about the same age as those in the regular high school, while 
those in the evening high school average a year and one-half older, and 

Evening high school (31.7) 

Continuation classes (21.6) 

State trade school (18.2) 

Day high school (12.3) 

Fig. 28. — Showing percentage of children in each of four groups having one or 
both parents deceased. Bridgeport, 1920-21. 

the children in the continuation classes are a half-year younger. With 
these considerations in mind, the comparisons made in this diagram 
take on significance. Practically one out of every three students in the 
evening high school has lost a parent. The mortality among the 
parents of this group is more than two and one-half times the mortality 
among the parents of high-school students. It should be greater by 3 or 
4 per cent because of the age differences, but no more than that. 
Thinking in terms of ages, the percentage should be higher for the high 
school than for the continuation classes, but the reverse is true in actual 
fact, to the extent of more than 9 per cent. Because of its two-year 
course and its practical bent, the trade school enrols a larger proportion 




lOO SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

of children who have been unfortunate in this respect than does the higU 
school. 

One other bit of evidence bearing on this question is presented in 
Table XXXVI. In the previous chapter it was pointed out that 
between 6 and 7 per cent of the students in the Freshman class do not 
expect to complete the course, according to their own statements. In 
three of the cities, Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, and St. Louis, the relation 
of this matter to mortality of parents was worked out for the first-year 
students, and the results are given in this table. It will be noted that 
there is a much larger percentage who have lost their parents among 

TABLE XXXVI 

Percentage of Students in Each of Two Groups Having One or Both Parents 

Deceased. Data from 4,437 Students in the Freshman Year of 

THE High School in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, and St. Louis 



Group 


Girls 


Boys 


Both Sexes 


Students in the Freshman class not expect- 
ing to complete the high-school course . . 
All students in the Freshman class 


20.6 
12.8 . 


22. I 
II. 9 


21.4 
12.4 



those who do not expect to complete the course than among the students 
of the entire Freshman class. To be exact, the percentages are 21.4 
and 12.4 respectively. Furthermore, this tendency is decidedly more 
marked for the boys than for the girls. Thus, while in the general 
high-school population the girls show a higher proportion having deceased 
parents than the boys, in that part of the student body not expect- 
ing graduation the reverse is true. Both facts support the conclusion 
that disorganization of the family falls more heavily on the boy than 
on the girl. 

OCCUPATION OF THE MOTHER 

It is well known that in many American families the mother engages 
in remunerative labor outside the home and in this way contributes to 
the family support. It is clear that, from the standpoint of the home, 
this is a disintegrating influence, or, at least, is evidence of disintegra- 
tion. In most cases the mother is forced to carry this extra burden 
because of economic pressure, and it therefore may be ordinarily regarded 
as an indication of poverty. It is apparent, however, that this is not 
true in all cases, for occasional reports in this study indicate that rare 
instances of the "emancipated" woman do appear. Some women with 




PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND FAMILY INFLUENCES loi 

families are demanding and are getting the privilege of earning their 
own livings in their own ways. 

Data were secured from the students in the high schools of all four 
cities showing the extent to which their mothers were contributing to 
the support of the family. Similar data were also obtained from all 
the non-high-school groups except the children of high-school age at 
work in Seattle. Two questions were asked each individual, the one 
checking the other. The returns are relatively complete and are 
thought to be accurate. 

Of the 17,265 high-school students included in the study, 1,289 or 
7.5 per cent reported their mothers to be engaged in remunerative 
employment of some kind outside the ordinary duties of the housewife. 
There is some variation from city to city. The highest percentage of 
10.3 is found in Seattle. Then follows Bridgeport with 6.g, St. Louis 
with 5.6, and finally, Mt. Vernon with 5.4. These differences are to be 

Sixth grade (15.6) 
High school (5.4) 

Fig. 29. — Showing the percentage of children in the sixth grade and in the high 
school whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment. Mt. Vernon, 
May, 192 1. 

explained in terms of the high-school enrolment and the occupational 
character of the population. For example, the large enrolment in the 
Seattle High School accounts for the high percentage of working mothers, 
since the deeper strata of the population are reached by the schools. 
Mt. Vernon, on the other hand, also has a relatively large proportion 
of its children in high school, but a low percentage of working mothers. 
This is probably due to the exceptional strength of the middle classes 
in this city. 

The facts for the successive high-school years show a constant 
decrease in the proportion of working mothers from the first year to the 
last. Thus, the percentage decreases from 8.9 in the Freshman, to 7.5 
in the Sophomore, 6.1 in the Junior, and 5.3 in the Senior year. This 
change, to be sure, is not startling but it is large enough to be significant. 

An examination of the returns for Mt. Vernon is of special interest, 
because of the inclusion of the sixth grade in the study. In Figure 29 
a comparison of the high school and the sixth grade shows marked 
dififerences between the two groups. The latter has almost three times 




I02 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

as large a proportion of working mothers as the former. If this situation 
is representative of American cities, we may say that, while it is uncom- 
mon for the mothers of high-school students to contribute to the family 
support by engaging in remunerative work, this condition obtains quite 
frequently among the children of the elementary school. 

As a final contribution to this topic, a comparison of the four Bridge- 
port groups is presented in Figure 30. Again observe the clear differences 

Continuation classes (15-4) 

Evening high school (14.0) 

Trade school (12.7) 

Day high school (&-9) 

Fig. 30. — Showing percentage of children in each of four groups whose mothers 
are working at remunerative employment. Bridgeport, 1919-20. 

in the social character of the young people brought together in 
these various schools and classes. At the one extreme are the compul- 
sory continuation classes in which 15.4 per cent of the mothers are work- 
ing outside the home, and at the other, according to expectations, the 
high school with a corresponding percentage of but 6.9. 

BROTHERS AND SISTERS 

It is natural to suppose that the number of children in the family 
is an important factor in determining the richness of the opportunity 
to be offered a particular child. Some have advocated liiniting the 
birth-rate on the grounds that fewer children mean greater advantages 
for those who are born. And the decreasing birth-rate in wide sections 
of the population is one of the most fundamental tendencies in western 
society today. 

In our investigation, inquiry was made as to the number of brothers 
and sisters of each child in all the groups studied, except the students 
in one of the Seattle high schools and the children at work in the same 
city. The general data for the high-school students are presented in 
Table XXXVII. A glance at the total number of students having 
each indicated number of brothers and sisters shows a distribution 
definitely skewed toward the lower end. The most frequent number 
of brothers and sisters is one, and a large proportion of these children 
have none at all. The medians also indicate that high-school students 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND FAMILY INFLUENCES 



103 



come from rather small families. By adding one to the median, we 
get the number of children in the family. This would make three the 
median niunber of children in the families of the students in the high 
schools of these four cities. There is some variation among the cities, 
which is probably explained in terms of the racial character of the 
population. Thus, the larger families in Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon 
are certainly due to the influence of the newer immigrant stocks, among 
which the birth-rate is still high. 



TABLE XXXVII 

Number of High-School Students in Four Cities Having Each Indicated 
Number of Brothers and Sisters 



Number of 

Brothers and 

Sisters 


Bridgeport 


Mt. Vernon 


St. Louis 


Seattle 


Total 





270 

485 

465 

376 

241 

186 

114 

59 

30 

16 

9 

I 

5 


119 
287 
232 
177 
102 
60 

55 
18 

14 

16 

4 


1,294 

1,952 

1,565 

1,082 

712 

408 

252 

139 

71 

41 

18 

2 

I 


696 

1,212 

1,036 

690 

490 

290 

169 

97 

65 

23" 

12 

4 
2 


2,379 

3,936 
3,298 
2,325 

1,545 
944 
590 
3^3 
180 


I 


2 


2 


4 


c 


6 


7 


8 





96 

43 
7 
8 


10 


II 


12 




1? 






14 








I 


I 












Total. . . . 
Median . . 


2,257 

2-3 


1,084 
2. 1 


7,537 
1.8 


4,787 
2.0 


15,665 
2.0 



We see no evidence of the elimination of the students coming 
from the larger families as we pass from the Freshman to the Senior 
year. An examination of the facts shows that the median number 
of brothers and sisters for the students in the first year is exactly the 
same as it is for those in the last, namely, two. Even the very large 
families are as well represented in the later as in the earlier years. 
Furthermore, the proportion of "only" children remains constant 
from year to year. It would seem, therefore, that, among those 
elements in the population which do get their children into the high 
school, the size of the family is not an important factor in further influ- 
encing attendance. 




I04 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

A comparison, however, of the high-school population with the 
pupils in the sixth grade in Mt. Vernon does reveal some substantial 
differences. As already stated in Table XXXVII, the median number 
of brothers and sisters for the former is 2.1. The corresponding figure 
for the children of the sixth grade is 3.0. But this difference is not to 
be construed as meaning that children are kept out of high school because 
of membership in large families, for the matter is not quite so simple 
as that. A more reasonable interpretation is that the size of the family 
is being limited by those classes in the population from which most of 
the high-school students come. 

Continuation classes (4-2) 

Evening high school (3.5) 

Trade school (3.0) 

Day high school (2.3) 

Fig. 31. — Showing median number of brothers and sisters for the children in 
each of four groups. Bridgeport, 1920-21. 

Data from the three groups of children in Bridgeport of high-school 
age not in high school give similar results. The medians for these 
groups and the students attending the high school in the same city are 
presented graphically in Figure 31. The difference between the con- 
tinuation classes and the high school is really striking, but the interpre- 
tation suggested in the previous paragraph in all probabiUty holds 
here. It is becoming clearer and clearer, however, that there are 
certain social strata that are not reached by the public high school. 

ORDER OF BIRTH 

Is the order of birth a matter of consequence to the child? In a 
society in which no law of primogeniture operates, is it best to be born 
first or last? On the basis of the returns to the two questions — (i) 
How many brothers and sisters have you ? and (2) How many are older 
than you? — an effort was made to throw some light on the matter. 
It was found very difficult, however, to disentangle the various factors 
involved, particularly in the study of the high-school groups alone, 
because the proportion of firstborn children in the high schools of a 
particular community is in some measure a function of population 
movements. In a new and rapidly developing community, inhabited 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL .\ND FAMILY INFLUENCES 105 

by the younger generation, the proportion of lirstborn in the high school 
will be disproportionately large, because of the youthful character of the 
adult population. Many of their firstborn and relatively few of their 
lastborn children will be in high school. We shall therefore merely 
refer to the data from Bridgeport where the high-school population 
may be compared with other groups of children of high-school age. 

The results of the study in Bridgeport are given in Table XXXVIII. 
For purposes of comparison, the relation between the firstborn and the 
lastborn is expressed in a single figure, namely, the number of the latter 

TABLE XXXVIII 

NxjMBER OF Firstborn for Every 100 Lastborn Children 

IN Each of Four Groups of Children of 

High-School Age in Bridgeport 



High school 

Trade school 

Evening high school . 
Continuation classes. 



117 
121 

159 
178 



for every one hundred of the former in each of the four groups. The 
striking thing about the table, perhaps, is the relatively large proportion 
of firstborn to lastborn children. In any total population they ought 
to be equal, since only those families are included in which there are two 
or more children. In each of such families there is always a firstborn 
and a lastborn child, even in the case of twins. What then is the 
explanation of the total situation in Bridgeport? It is that suggested 
in the previous paragraph. Bridgeport has grown very rapidly during 
recent years; its population is therefore relatively youthful; and 
consequently, the proportion of firstborn among children of high-school 
age is considerably greater than that of lastborn children. The latter 
have not yet reached this age in proportionate numbers. But the 
table shows wide differences among these groups. The high school has 
the smallest proportion of firstborn children and the continuation classes 
have the largest. The inference is clear that the firstborn children are 
handicapped in the struggle of Ufe. On them, more than on their 
younger brothers and sisters, falls the burden of contributing to the 
family support. 



CHAPTER XII 
THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 

For at least three-quarters of a century we, as a nation, have faced 
the problems arising from the presence of a large immigrant population. 
Driven largely by economic considerations on the one hand and political 
forces on the other, the Irish and the Germans arrived in great numbers in 
the decade from 1845 to 1855. Since that time, up to the year of the 
Great War, with fluctuations due to the operation of various sociological 
forces, our immigration increased in volume and complexity. Gradu- 
ally, as the years passed, the proportion from the less accessible and 
more backward countries of southern and eastern Europe increased, 
until toward the close of the nineteenth century we began to speak of 
the "new" immigration in contradistinction to the "old" from the 
north and west of Europe, which was culturally and racially more 
nearly allied to our own people. Today we are peculiarly conscious 
of the difficulties that attend the union of such diverse population 
elements. 

In recent years much has been said and written about the relation 
of the immigrant to the public school, and numerous investigations 
have been made. Consequently this chapter will be cut down to its 
narrowest limits, and is included at all chiefly in the interests of a more 
complete sociological picture. Yet there are certain novel features of 
this study that will perhaps appeal to the reader. 

Data bearing on this question were obtained in but two of the cities, 
Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon. Because of the small number of children 
of immigrant parentage in the schools of the latter, major attention will 
be given to the former. Although information concerning the country 
of birth for each parent was secured, the classification of the children 
in every instance follows the nativity of the father. This simplifies 
the tabulation of the data without detracting from the validity of the 
interpretation. 

THE TOTAL ENROLMENT 

As pointed out in an earlier chapter, the city of Bridgeport has a 
very large and varied immigrant population. In Table XXXIX the 
2,257 students in the Bridgeport High School are classified according to 

106 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 



107 



the father's country of birth. For the sake of simplicity but ten divi- 
sions are used in this classification. In each case national units and 
boundaries are recognized as they existed in 19 14, except that Poland 
is given distinct treatment. All the people from the old Austro- 
Hungarian Empire are grouped together, partly because the data did 
not in all cases indicate the particular part of this polyglot empire from 
which the fathers came. Under the British Empire are included all 
sections of the empire peopled by the white races, except Ireland. This 
has the merit at least of being satisfactory to most Irishmen and many 



TABLE XXXIX 

Nativity of the Fathers of 2,257 Students in the Bridge- 
port High School 



Country of Father's Birth 

United States 

Austria-Hungary 

British Empire (excluding Ireland) 

Germany 

Ireland 

Italy 

Poland 

Russia 

Scandinavia 

All others 

Total 

Total foreign 




Englishmen, as well as being justified sociologically. Norway, Sweden, 
and Denmark, following the customary practice, are classed together 
as Scandinavia. An effort was made to keep the Hebrews separate, 
but without success. They are consequently assigned to the particular 
countries in which they were born; but, from the information given 
concerning the language spoken in the home, it is evident that practically 
all fathers born in Russia are really Russian Jews. 

According to this table the fathers of 49 per cent of the students in 
the Bridgeport High School were born in the United States. The 
remaining 51 per cent are of immigrant parentage, and are widely dis- 
tributed over the countries of Europe, with Russia leading and Austria- 
Hungary occupying second place. But these figures have no special 
significance when taken by themselves. Let us, therefore, pass to some 
comparative data. 



io8 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



THE FRESHMAN AND SENIOR YEARS 

A comparison of the Freshman and Senior years is of interest. 
In Figure 32 is shown, for each of the groups, the number of students 
in the Senior year for every one hundred in the Freshman year of the 
high school. At the top stands Germany with 61.1, while Poland foots 
the list with but 15.4. The United States occupies an intermediate 

o 20 Je 40 80 



Germany 


(61. I) 


British Empire 


(57.6) 


Russia 


(50-9) 


Ireland 


(48.4) 


United States 


(43-7) 


Scandinavia 


(566) 


Austria-Hungary 


(26.S) 


Italy 


(16.7) 


Poland 


(15-4) 


Other foreign 


(11. i) 


Total 


(41.S) 




Fig. 32. — Showing for each ethnic group the number of students in the Senior 
year for every 100 in the Freshman year of the high school. Data from 2,257 cases. 
Bridgeport. 

position. On the whole the people from the north and west of Europe 
make a better showing than those from the south and east. The single 
exception to this generalization is the case of Russia, whose large Hebrew 
contingent is probably responsible for the fact that the people from this 
section of Europe are found in third place. These conclusions are 
supported by the data from Mt. Vernon. 



CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE NOT IN HIGH SCHOOL 

More significant perhaps than this comparison between the Freshman 
and Senior years is the comparison of the children in high school with the 
three groups outside, already studied in other connections. These are 
the children in the evening high school, the trade school, and the com- 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 



109 



pulsory continuation classes. The facts are presented in Table XL in 
percentages. It is observed at once that children of native parentage 
are less well represented here than in the high school, while the reverse 
is true for the children of immigrants, taking them altogether. But an 
examination of the different immigrant stocks reveals great variation 
among them. A comparison of the percentages for these three groups 
with those for the high school given in the previous table shows greater 
proportional representation in the high school for the Irish, Russian 
Jews, and Scandinavians. In fact the Irish and the Russian Jews make 
almost as good a record as the native stock with their advantageous 

TABLE XL 

Nativity of the Fathers of Children in Evening High School, Trade School, 
AND Compulsory Continuation Classes, Bridgeport 







^7 


















11 


3 


Group of Children 


Is 


a 
be 
a 
3 


'B. 
B 
H 


>, 












^ 




u 

"0 




-0 

'S 


.2 


J3 


a 
a 
E 


-a 
c 


"3 


-a 
a 


.5 
3 


c 
-3 

c 


-C 




11- 


XI 

E 

3 




:d 


< 


m 





>^ 


M 


&< 


« 


C/) 


< 


H 


IS 


Evening high school 


22.6 


21.4 


7.0 


^.8 


9.9 


9-5 


4.1 


13.6 


4.1 


2.0 


100. 


243 


Trade school 


22. 2 


76 ^i 


« 6 


S-o 


2.0 


13-2 


■; f> 


h 


6 6 


4-S 


100. 


198 


Continuation classes 


17.8 


33-7 


7-S 


3.2 


1.8 


24.2 


5-9 

S-4 


3-7 


1-7 


■ 5 


100. 


579 


Total 


19.8 


29.3 


7.6 


4.2 


3.8 


18.5 


6.S 


- 


1-7 


100. 


1,020 







social and economic position. At the other extreme are the peoples of 
Austria-Hungary, the Italians, and the Poles, among whom the propor- 
tional representation is much greater in the three groups of children not 
in high school than in the high-school population. Another interesting 
feature of the table is the much greater representation of the Irish and 
the Russian Jews in the evening high school than in the trade school 
and the continuation classes. This indicates an unusually strong interest 
in an academic education on the part of these races, as well as exceptional 
energy and earnestness in the pursuit of educational opportunity, since 
voluntary attendance at evening school at best involves serious immedi- 
ate, personal sacrifice. 

The percentage of children in each of these four Bridgeport groups 
whose fathers were born in the United States is shown in Figure t,^. 
Clearly the opportunities of secondary education are much more widely 
distributed among children of native parentage than among those born 
of immigrants. 



no SELECTIVE CHAIL\CTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

A single set of facts from Mt. Vernon should be presented here. 
Owing to the very small numbers of children from most of the immigrant 
stocks in the schools of this city, it is hardly worth while to make the 
detailed analysis that has just been made for Bridgeport. There is 
one immigrant group, however, that is very well represented — the 
Italians. Consequently in Table XLI is given the number of children 
in the sixth grade and each year of the high school from each of three 

Day high school (49-o) 

Evening high school (22.6) 

State trade school (22.2) 

Continuation classes (178) 

Fig. 33. — Showing the percentage of children in each of four groups whose fathers 
were bom in the United States. Bridgeport. 

groups — the native stock, the Italians, and all others. Again, it is to be 
observed that the children of native parentage make a superior record 
and that among the other races the children of Italian fathers have an 
almost negligible representation in the later high-school years. For 
every one hundred children in the sixth grade the native stock has 30.2 
in the last year of the high school; the Italians but 3.5; and all other 
immigrant groups 20.2. 

TABLE XLI 

Nativity of Fathers of Children in the Mt. Vernon Sixth Grade and in 
Each Year of the Mt. Vernon High Schools 




Country of Father's 
Birth 


Sixth 
Grade 


Freshman 


Sophomore 


Junior 


Senior 


Total 


United States 

Italy 


29s 
256 
188 


234 

59 

132 


194 
29 
99 


133 

8 

60 


89 

9 

38 


945 
361 


All others 


517 






Total 


739 


425 


322 


201 


136 


1,823 







THE CHOICE OF CURRICULA 



It is interesting to see how the different racial groups respond to the 
curricular opportunities offered in the Bridgeport High School. Since 
the curricula for the girls are somewhat different from those for the boys, 
the two sexes will receive separate consideration. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 



III 



In Table XLII are presented the curricular choices of the girls, 
grouped according to the nativity of the father. For convenience in 
comparison the distribution of each group of girls is expressed in per- 
centages. Thus, of the 634 girls whose fathers were born in the United 
States, 24 per cent are pursuing the college preparatory course, 27 per 
cent the normal course, etc. If we note the percentage of girls from 
each of the groups pursuing each of the three popular curricula, some 
rather pronounced differences will be observed. The tendency for 
girls of native parentage to enter the college preparatory course is 

TABLE XLII 

Percentage of Girls in Each Group Pursuing Each of the Curricula Open 

TO Girls in the Bridgeport High School. Girls Grouped 

According to Nativity of Fathers 







>. 


















































^ 


M 


>-< 






















■2j 


C 


a 






















a 




E 


















a 


Curriculum 


CO 


w 


W 


>> 










S 


m 




.» 




■a 

V 

'S 


CIS 

•c 
< 




S 




C 


3 


•a 
c 
_c5 
"o 
(I4 


.3 


a 
■■3 
a 

CO 




< 




< 


College 




18 






7 

40 
52 


5 
28 


17 

25 

50 

8 


23 


9 

24 
62 


27 




16 






2i 

54 
3 
2 


36 


25 

57 

4 


27 

so 


28 




47 
2 


42 


67 


55 


Si 


54 


General 


5 


Scientific 












































Total 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 






Number of cases 


634 


97 


88 


28 


100 


43 


12 


■ 
145 


S8 


IS 


1,220 


586 



apparently considerably stronger than among girls of foreign parentage. 
Yet among certain of the immigrant groups, especially the Russian Jews 
and the people of the British Empire, excluding Ireland, the proportion 
to be found in this curriculum is almost as large as it is for the native 
stock. The Italians and the Irish are representative of the other 
extreme. The latter incline rather strongly toward the normal course. 
In fact 40 per cent of the Irish girls are planning to teach. The Russian 
Jews, on the other hand, show the least inclination in this direction. 
It is a fact worthy of attention in this connection that this curriculum 
is attracting a slightly larger percentage of the immigrant than of the 
native stock. The commercial course is also somewhat more attractive 
to the former, probably because of their lower social and economic level. 
Two-thirds of the Italian girls are enrolled in this course. Yet in 
Bridgeport, in every one of these groups, the percentage in the commer- 



112 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



cial course is larger than that to be found in any one of the other 
curricula. 

It would be natural to suppose that the boys from these different 
groups behave somewhat as the girls do, but such is not the case, as a 
glance at Table XLIII shows. In contrasting the boys of native 
parentage with those of immigrant stock,' it will sufl&ce to confine our 
attention to but two of the curricula, the college preparatory and the 
scientific. No significant diflFerences appear in the choice of the other 
curricula. Throwing all the immigrant groups together it will be 

TABLE XLIII 

Percentage of Boys in Each Groxjp Pursuing Each of the Curricula Open 

TO Boys in the Bridgeport High School. Boys Grouped 

According to Nativity of Fathers 



Curriculum 


Id 
So 
•a 

"a 


& 

to 

c 

3 

i 

< 


E 
W 




a 

a 


i-i 


I 


3 
Pi 


c4 



< 


1 


a 


College 


23 
4 

IS 
S 

53 


47 
6 

15 
3 

29 


26 

ID 

i8 

3 

43 


i8 
4 
17 


40 

7 

19 


36 

8 
18 

3 
35 


61 
8 

31 


59 

I 
9 

30 


16 

4 

4 

8 

68 


31 

••38- 

23 


33 

5 
14 

4 
44 


42 




5 




14 




2 




6i 


34 


37 






Total 


lOO 


lOO 


lOO 


lOO 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 


100 






Number of cases 


472 


no 


67 


23 


74 


66 


13 


149 


50 


13 


1.037 


S6s 



observed that the college course is much more and the scientific course 
much less popular among these boys than among those of native parent- 
age. This tendency to choose the college course is especially strong 
among the immigrants from the south and east of Europe, including 
the Russian Jews. On the other hand, certain of the peoples from the 
north and west, notably the Scandinavians and the Germans and 
representatives of the British Empire in smaller measure, exhibit the 
American inclmation toward the scientific course. It is dif&cult to give 
an explanation of these differences since both of these curricula are 
primarily college preparatory. Apparently some of these groups are 
captivated by the name, at least in so far as the boys are concerned. 

BOYS AND GIRLS 

It is well known that there are more girls than boys in the American 
high school, there being only about 85 boys to every 100 girls for the 
country as a whole. This greater tendency for the girls to attend high 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 



113 



school, however, is not characteristic of all the immigrant groups. 
Examine Table XLIV in which the ratio of boys to girls is given for each 
of the groups. Among those students whose fathers were born in the 
United States there are but 74.4 boys to every 100 girls. In the case of 
the Italians, on the other hand, the ratio is 153.5, ^^^ the boys are in 

TABLE XLIV 

Number of Boys to 'ioo Girls in Bridgeport High 

School. Students Grouped According to Nativity 

OF Father. Data from 2,257 Cases 



Country of Father's Birth 

United States 

Austria-Hungary 

British Empire 

Germany 

Ireland 

Italy 

Poland 

Russia 

Scandinavia 

All others 

Total 

All foreign 



No. Boys to 
100 Girls 



74-4 
II3-5 
76.1 
82.1 
74 o 

IS3-5 

108.3 

102.8 

86.2 

86.7 



85.0 
96.4 



the majority in three other groups — the people of Austria-Hungary, 
the Poles, and the Russians. Again is to be noted the cleavage between 
the north and west and the south and east of Europe. The people 
from the former exhibit the American trait of sending the girls to high 
school, while those from the latter seemingly are less inclined to regard 
a secondary education as necessary for girls. 



CHAPTER XIII 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 

It is a well-known fact that the negroes do not patronize the secon- 
dary schools of the country in large numbers. The reports of the Com- 
missioner of Education, in so far as they present separate data for 
negroes, indicate a large amount of retardation and relatively early 
elimination for the race as a whole. Commenting on this matter the 
Biennial Survey of Education for 1916-18 by the Bureau of Education 
makes the following summary statement: "In short, over seven times 
as great a proportion of white pupils as colored pupils are to be found 
in secondary schools of the South." 

The causes of this situation are undoubtedly complex, reaching far 
back into the history and the nature of the negro. And no claim is 
put forward here of a complete explanation. Some interesting facts, 
however, have come to light that have at least some bearing on the 
question. 

Since the number of negroes in Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, and Seattle 
is negligible, no reference will be made in this chapter to data collected 
from these cities. St. Louis, on the other hand, as the population 
statistics already given show, does have a considerable negro population. 
Following the custom of the South this city maintains a dual system 
of education for the white and colored races, extending into the secondary 
field. One of the six St. Louis high schools, Sumner, is a negro high 
school. It is extraorinarily well attended, with an enrolment of over 
eight hundred. In fact, in proportion to the number residing in St. 
Louis, the negroes have as large an attendance in the public high schools 
as the whites. This is a remarkable showing, and it adds some interest 
to this part of the study. 

Seven hundred and twenty-seven students in the high school filled 
out the information card. While this was not the total enrolment, it 
did include practically all who were present on the day this census was 
taken. The distribution of these young people according to sex and year 
in the high school is given in Table XLV. It will be observed that there 
are almost twice as many girls as boys. This seems to be characteristic 
of negroes generally, as it accords with the facts presented in the reports 
of the Bureau of Education and some other studies that have been 

114 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 



115 



made. As already noted, this is a cultural trait peculiar to the civiliza- 
tion of America and the north and west of Europe. 



TABLE XLV 

Distribution by Sex and Year in High School of 727 Students in the Sumner 
(Colored) High School of St. Louis 



Sex 


Freshman 


Sophomore 


Junior 


Senior 


Total 


Girls 

Boys 


173 
102 


115 
66 


105 
32 


91 
43 


484 
243 


Total. . . . 


275 


181 


137 


134 


727 



FATHER S OCCUPATION 

Naturally these colored children would be expected to present an 
occupational representation- quite different from that of the white 
children and characteristic of their race. Only slowly and against the 
most gigantic obstacles have the negroes been working their way upward 
through the several occupational levels since their emancipation from 
slavery less than three generations ago. At present the great majority 
of the members of this race in our cities are engaged in occupations 
requiring little skill. Their history has associated them with personal 
service. Since they own relatively little property few are found in 
those occupations which are based on its ownership, such as the proprie- 
tary and managerial callings. Furthermore, owing to a distinctly 
limited demand for professional service within the race, the number so 
engaged is small. 

The occupations of the fathers of these 727 students are shown in 
Table XLVI. According to the facts here presented, as might be 
expected, personal service has the greatest representation, including 
22 per cent, almost one-fourth of the total number. Common labor 
is second, and the machine trades third. It is perhaps surprising to 
find the- clerical occupations occupying the fourth place, but this may 
be explained in terms of politics, since approximately three-fourths 
of them are mail clerks. Professional service is also represented in 
larger measure than might be expected. It should be remembered, 
however, that this type of service is not quite so rigid in its meaning as 
among the white population. Neither are the lines between occupations 
drawn so clearly. This fact is brought out by noting the composition 
of the several high-school years through data not presented in this 



Il6 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

table. The tendency noted again and again of certain of the occupa- 
tional groups to maintain themselves in the high school is not apparent 
here. The proprietors and professionals, for example, are no better 

TABLE XLVI 

Occupations of the Fathers of 727 Students in the Sumner (Colored) 
High School of St. Louis 



Parental Occupation 


Number 


Percentage 




21 
48 

38 
II 

57 
30 
28 
24 
66 
2 
16 
48 

5 

160 

6 

90 

77 


2.9 




6.6 


Managerial service 


5-2 


Commercial service 


1-5 


Clerical service 


7-9 




41 




3-8 


Building trades 


3-3 


Machine trades 


9. 1 


Printing trades 


.3 




2.2 


Transportation service 


6.6 


Public service 


.7 


Personal service 


22.0 


Miners, lumber- workers, fishermen 


.8 
12.4 


Unknown 


10.6 






Total 


727 


100. 







represented in the Senior than in the Freshman year. The only excep- 
tion to the forgoing general statement is found in the case of common 
labor, which does exhibit the same traits as among the whites, but to a 
less marked degree. 

FAMILY INFLUENCES 

The negro family is not noted for its stability, and there are probably 
few factors of more importance in determining high-school attendance 
than the character of the family. Although it would be highly desirable 
to present data here dealing with the negro family in its varied aspects, 
this is not possible. Information was secured only on a few items. 
These, however, will be found to be significant. 

The first and most miportant matter pertains to the mortality of the 
parents. Obviously the death of one of the parents is a most serious 
matter in the life of the child, particularly among those classes of the 
population whose standard of living approximates the margin of exist- 
ence. In Table XL VII the facts for the students attending the Sumner 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 



117 



High School are compared with those for the students attending the 
other St. Louis high schools. And in Figure 34 the totals for the negro 
and white children are contrasted. According to the facts presented in 
this table 27.9 per cent of the negro children come from homes in which 
one or both parents are dead. This is more than one in every four 
students and is over twice the rate for the children of white parentage. 
The difference between the two races is more marked in the loss of the 



TABLE XLVII 

Percentage of Students in the Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis 
Having One or Both Parents Deceased 



High School 


Father 
Deceased 


Mother 
Deceased 


Both Parents 
Deceased 


Total 


Sumner High School (colored) 

Other St. Louis high schools (white) . 


12.8 
7.6 


10. 
3-8 


1-3 


27.9 
12.7 



mother than in the loss of the father; while the greatest contrast is 
seen in the loss of both parents, the rate for the negroes here being four 
times that for the whites. The high mortality rate among the negroes 
has long been noted. It is probably a function of their standard of 
living and mode of life. But its bearing on educational opportunity 



Negro (27.9) 



WWte 



(12.7) 




Fig. 34. — Comparing the negro and white high-school students in St. Louis with 
respect to the percentage having one or both parents deceased. 



has not received adequate recognition. Clearly this is an important 
consideration in a social order where large responsibilities for the educa- 
tion of the children still rest on the home. 

Another significant measure of the integrity of the home is found 
in the occupation of the mother. Is the mother helping to support the 
family by working at some form of remunerative employment outside 
the home? Here again, in Figure 35, the negro and white students in 
the St. Louis high schools are compared. And, again, the unfavorable 
position of the former is noted. Over 30 per cent of the negro mothers 
are helping to support the family, whereas only 5.6 per cent of the 
mothers of the white children are so engaged. As a matter of fact, no 



Il8 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

occupational group among the latter even approches the negroes in this 
matter. As might be expected, the common laborers present a record 
nearest that of the negroes, but even here only 13 per cent of the 
mothers are helping to support the family. 



Negro 



White 



(30.3) 



(5.6) 



c 



Fig. 35. — Showing percentage of negro and white children in St. Louis high 
schools whose mothers are engaged in remunerative employment. 

The size of the family from which the high-school students come 
is almost the same for the two races, if we think in terms of medians. 
For the negroes the median number of children in the family is 3.1; for 
the whites it is 2.8. The distribution of the size of the family for the 
two races, however, is somewhat different, as is shown in Figure 36. 



.,/ 


\ 










Whi 














Neg 


ro - . 




— 


/ ■ 


^^- 


'^v 


\, 




























\^- 


-.^ 


^ 


--. 













Number of Children 

Fig. 36. — Comparing whites and negroes with respect to size of family from which 
the high-school students come. St. Louis. 

The curve for the negroes is a peculiar one. It shows the most frequent 
number of children per family to be one. Whether this curve is charac- 
teristic of the negroes in St. Louis or to be explained in terms of the 
operation of a selective principle in the high-school population, it is 
impossible to say. 

CHOICE OF CURRICULA 

The children in the Sumner High School are offered practically the 
same choice of curricula as the children in the other St. Louis high 
schools. In view of the difference already noted in the social composition 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 



119 



and occupational outlook of the two races, it would be natural to expect 
the negro children to exhibit distinctive traits in the selection of courses. 
It will be interesting to survey the facts. 

Table XLVIII presents the curricular choices of the 484 negro 
girls in comparison with corresponding data from 3,978 girls of white 
parentage. The facts are given in percentages to make the comparison 
easy. An examination of the table will show that there are just two 
points at which the two races exhibit sharp differences. In the first 
place, the four-year home economics course appears to be actually 

TABLE XLVIII 

Percentage of Girl Students in the Colored and White 

High Schools of St. Louis Pursuing the 

Different Curricula 



Curriculum 



Four-year general . 

Four-year scientific 

Four-year commercial 

Four-year home economics. 

Four-year classical 

Four-year fine arts 

Two-year commercial 

Two-year home economics. 
One-year commercial 



Total . 



Negro 



43-4 

.6 

23.6 

30.4 



1.6 

•4 



White 



44.1 

.6 

21 .6 

95 

1 .0 

3-6 

18.5 

•4 

•7 



100. o 



popular among these colored girls, over 30 per cent of them taking it. 
This is the only group discovered in the four cities that seems to be 
interested in this course. It might be explained on the grounds that 
these girls are preparing for personal service, but data to be presented 
later indicate that only one of the 484 girls displays any intention of 
entering this occupation following graduation from high school. In the 
second place, the two-year commercial course is distinctly unpopular 
among these girls. Among the girls of white parentage, on the other 
hand, this course draws more students than any other course during the 
first and second years, except the general course, which points particu- 
larly to college. This difference may be due in part to inferior opportu- 
nities to enter into the clerical occupations on the part of colored girls. 
Perhaps, after all, the surprising thing about the facts presented in 
this table is that both races register practically the same proportion of 



I20 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



the girls in the general course. This indicates a strong college tradition 
in the Sumner High School, as well as in the other high schools of the 
city. 

Among the boys the differences are more pronounced than among 
the girls, as a glance at Table XLIX will prove. This is somewhat 
surprising because, among the whites, the girls appear to be more bound 
by the occupational group from which they come than are the boys. 

TABLE XLIX 

Percentage of Boy Students in the Colored and White 

High Schools of St. Louis Pursuing the 

Different Curricula 



Curriculum 



Four-year general 

Four-year scientific 

Four-year commercial .... 
Four-year manual training . 

Four-year classical 

Four-year fine arts 

Two-year commercial 

Two-year manual training. 

Two-year printing 

One-year commercial 



Total . 



Negro 



14.0 

9-5 
20. 2 

54-7 



1 . 2 

•4 



White 



There the boys tend to break over the class lines, while the girls conform 
to them. Only a small percentage of the colored boys are pursuing the 
general curriculum, in which are enrolled 42 per cent of the white boys. 
The four-year manual training course, on the other hand, is extremely 
popular with the negroes. Almost 55 per cent of them are taking it. 
The four-year commercial course is also much more popular among them 
than among the whites. The various short courses appeal to the boys 
of neither race. 

EXPECTATIONS FOLLOWING GRADUATION 

Perhaps just as significant as the curriculum chosen, if not more so, 
is the statement of expectations of the students following graduation. 
To be sure, little weight can be attached to these statements as indexes 
of what these boys and girls will actually do when they leave the high 
school. In truth, the evidence is quite strong in the other direction, 
namely, that many of them will not do that which they say they will do. 
But, as an index of the traditions and atmosphere of the school, these 
statements undoubtedly have weight. 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO I2l 

A glance at Table L shows quite conclusively that at least according 
to their statements the negro girls are not intending to enter the occupa- 
tions in which their parents are engaged. Apparently they plan to 
attend college in proportionately larger numbers than do their white 
sisters. They are likewise attracted to the normal school in such 
numbers as to set at rest any fear among the champions of education lest 
the colored schools be closed for lack of teachers. It should also be 

TABLE L 

Expectations Following Graduation of Girls in the 
Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis 



Expectations 



College 

Normal school .... 
Business college. . . . 

Other school 

Travel 

Home 

Professional service . 
Commercial service 
Clerical service .... 
Industrial service . . 
Personal service . . . 

Work 

Undecided 



Total percentage. 



Negro 



35-3 

26. 2 

2. 1 

3-9 



13-5 

. 2 

II. 6 

1-5 

. 2 
2.4 
3-1 



100. o 



White 



30 



noted that many of those mentioning the college as their immediate 
objective, intend ultimately to enter the teaching profession. And the 
13.5 per cent grouped under professional service includes a large propor- 
tion who are expecting to begin teaching with only the high-school 
training. Clearly teaching is attractive to these young people. The 
profession still retains the prestige which it has lost among members of 
the other race. A summary inspection of the table shows that the 
occupational interest which dominates this group of negro girls is the 
professional, and that they are hoping the high school will provide a 
means of escape from the wage-earning class from which they come and 
back to which most of them will probably have to go. 

The negro boys also are intent on a higher education. This is seen 
in Table LI. According to their statements 63 per cent of these boys 
are planning to attend college. This is almost 12 per cent greater than 
for the boys of white parentage. A second interesting feature of the 
table is the relatively large proportion of colored boys looking toward 



122 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the industrial occupations. But this is absolutely quite small, amounting 
to only 8.7 per cent. A third point of interest is the smaller proportion 
of negroes who are undecided. A glance at the preceding table shows 
this to be true of the girls as well as the boys. 

In conclusion it may be said that this brief and somewhat superficial 
study of the population of a single negro high school throws some light 
on the relation of the negro to our secondary schools. His relative 



TABLE LI 

Expectations Following Graduation of Boys in the 
Colored and White High Schools of St. Louis 



Expectations 



College 

Business college 

Other school 

Travel 

Farming 

Professional service ... 
Commercial service . . . 

Clerical service 

Industrial service 

Public service 

Personal service 

Transportation service 

Work 

Undecided 



Total percentage 



Negro 



63.0 



4.6 
•4 
•4 

1 . 2 
.8 

5-3 

8.7 



.8 



7.8 
7.0 



White 



51-4 

•5 

2. 2 

. I 

•4 
i.o 

3-2 

5-5 

2.6 

. I 



■3 
16.7 
16.0 



absence of interest in the high school is rather easy to understand. 
As a race the negroes are engaged in occupations which require little 
skill, for which the remuneration is low, and whose respectability is not 
high. Their standard of living is also low, and the home is not the 
center of stimulation and inspiration that it is among other groups in 
the population. The family is notoriously unstable because of the 
absence of those traditions that would give it stability. The high 
mortality of the race also acts as a disorganizing and disintegrating 
force in many negro homes. Taking into consideration these various 
influences, the attendance at the Sumner High School in St. Louis is 
little short of marvelous. These young people are carrying on a struggle 
for secondary education that is really unique in the annals of American 
education. The obvious handicaps under which they are striving can 
be duplicated by few social groups in this country today outside their 
own race. The present study shows no group within the white popula- 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 1 23 

tion in the four cities investigated waging the fight so successfully and 
against such tremendous odds, as is the negro population of St. Louis. 
Those elements of the white population that might be regarded as 
approximating the negroes in standard of living, social tradition, and the 
general organization of life are very far from doing as well. The children 
from these groups hardly get into the high school at all. It is very 
doubtful if, outside the negro populations of a very few of the large cities 
midway between the north and south, such as Washington, there is any 
population group within the nation that is doing so much to send its 
children to high school as are the negroes of St. Louis. 



CHAPTER XIV 



THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 

It has been made clear in the earlier chapters that the student 
population of the public high school is sociologically highly selected. 
It remains to consider briefly the question of psychological selection — 
briefly because this does not constitute the central part of the study 
and because much has been done in this field in recent years. 

Psychological tests were given to the four groups of children in 
Bridgeport and to the students in the first year of the high school in 
Mt. Vernon. In the former city the Chapman-Welles Junior and 
Senior High School Classification Test was used and in the latter the 
National Intelligence Tests, Scale B, Form i. We shall now examine 
the data secured from these two cities, giving special attention to the 
data from Bridgeport, because of the more comprehensive study made 
there. 

CHILDREN OF HIGH-SCHOOL AGE IN HIGH SCHOOL AND OUT 

The median scores made by the girls and boys in each of the high- 
school years in Bridgeport are given in Table LII. Although the facts 
in this table, apart from a comparison with data from the other groups 

TABLE LII 

Median Scores Made by Girls and Boys in Each Year of 
THE High School in Bridgeport — Chapman- 
Welles Test. Data from 2,537 Cases 



High-School Year 

Freshman 

Sophomore 

Junior 

Senior 

Number of cases 



1,36:: 



Girls 


Boys 


72.9 


89.7 


90.8 


101. 8 


95-4 


110.7 


99.2 


113. 8 



1,175 



studied in this city, are of no great significance to this study, there are 
several points of interest to be noted. The median score increases 
noticeably in the succsessive years of the high school, yet for both 
sexes the most pronounced difference occurs between the Freshman and 
Sophomore years. This may be due to disproportionate ehmmation 

124 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 



125 



at this point in the high school, but more probably to the fact that the 
test is not well adapted to measuring differences among the more mature 
students in the later high-school years. It is also observed that the 
median score for the boys is in each case appreciably higher than that 
for the girls. It seems probable that this is likewise to be explained in 
terms of the organization of the test. 

But it is the comparison with these other groups of children of 
high-school age that interests us. These comparative scores are pre- 
sented in Table LIII. No score is given for the girls in the first year of 

TABLE LIII 

Median Scores Made by Girls and Boys in the First Year of the High School, 
THE Evening High School, the First Year of the Trade School, and the 
Compulsory Continuation Classes in Bridgeport — Chapman -Welles 
Test 



Group 


Girls 


Boys 


Number 
of Cases 


First year high school 


72.9 
60.0 


8Q.7 
78.1 
62.0 
40.9 


910 
181 


Evening high school 


First year trade school 




Continuation classes 


29. 1 


421 





the trade school because the number of cases was entirely too small to 
insure reliability. The outstanding fact in the table is that, speaking 
in terms of medians, the children in the Freshman year of the high school 
are distinctly superior to those in the other groups. And in the case of 



First year high school (89.7) 

Evening high school (78.1) 

First year trade school (62.0) 

Continuation classes (40.9) 



Fig. 37. — Showing the median score made in the Chapman-Welles Test by the 
boys in each of four groups. Bridgeport. 




the evening high school the difference is more significant than these 
scores indicate, because these students are on the average two to three 
years older than those in the first year of the high school. In Figure 37 
a graphical comparison is made of the median scores for the boys in 
these four groups. No comment is necessary. 



126 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Median scores, however, tell but a part of the truth. For this 
reason P'igure 38 was constructed, in which is presented the complete 
distribution of the scores made by each of three groups of boys, those 
in the first year of the high school, those in the first year of the trade 
school, and those in the compulsory continuation classes. The boys in 
these three groups are of approximately the same age. Observe the 
character of the curves. The curve for the high-school Freshmen 



^s 




1 
1 1 

1 
1 

1 

1 1 
1 1 

11 
'1 


l_ 












F"irst-Year 
High School 
First- Year 
Trade School 
Continuation 
Classes 






20 



















15 












1 


1 










__J 


1 






lo 


i I 




1 1 








— 












1 '— - 
■ 1 ! 








! -] 












1 — ^.. 








1 ■ 










1 
.... 1 




r 


" 



130 140 ISO 



Fig. 38. — Showing by percentages the distribution of scores made by each of 
three groups of boys in the Chapman-Welles Test. Data from 426 boys in the first 
year of the high school, 112 boys in the first year of the trade school, and 201 boys in 
the compulsory continuation classes. Bridgeport. 

shows a fairly normal distribution about a center of superior ability, 
while that for the continuation classes exhibits a similar distribution 
about a center of mediocre or inferior ability. On the other hand, the 
curve for the first year of the trade school shows a wide and somewhat 
irregular distribution. The first two curves are to be expected, but why 
this peculiar distribution for the trade school ? The probable explana- 
tion is to be found in the educational status of this institution and the 
attitude of school teachers and others toward it. There is no policy of 
admission that would close the doors of the trade school to children 
judged inferior by academic standards. In many instances, as a matter 
of fact, children who have failed in the conventional curriculum are 
encouraged to try this school. This accounts for the large number of 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 1 27 

cases at the lower end of the distribution, but it does not explain the 
presence of many children of average and even superior ability. Appar- 
ently they enter the trade school either through necessity or because of 
interest in, or an aptitude for, various types of manual activity. 

Perhaps a word should be said about the overlapping of these curves. 
This is certainly just as significant as the fact of median differences. 
There is very large overlapping between the high-school and trade- 
school curves, and even the compulsory continuation classes hold a 
considerable area in common with the high school Freshmen. Although 
the children in these classes have in the main been rejected as unfit by 
the school, there is a surprisingly large amount of ability to be found 
among them. There are even a few of distinctly superior promise, at 
least as measured by this test. On the other hand, in the high school 
there are some children of remarkably inferior ability. Thus, while 
we may say that the high-school population represents a certain measure 
of psychological selection, it is clear that this principle does not operate 
conclusively in a negative fashion and much less in a positive way in 
determining attendance at high school. Neither are all of meager 
intellectual endowment barred from high school, nor are all possessing 
superior talent to be found within its doors. 

There is another point of interest in the data from the trade school 
that deserves some comment. The boys in the second year not only 
did not do as well in the test as those in the first year, but they actually 
made a median record almost ten points lower. As already given in the 
table, the median for the first year is 62.0, while that for the second 
year is but 52.9; and it should be noted further that there is a median 
age difference of 1.3 years in favor of the second-year boys. While no 
sweeping conclusions may be drawn from data from a single school, 
these facts give rise to the suspicion that the work of the trade school 
is not of such a character as to demand ability of the type measured by 
this and similar tests. 

CHOICE or CURRICULA 

' That a certain amount of psychological selection is expressed in the 
choice of curricula is to be expected. The extent to which this occurs 
in the Bridgeport High School is shown in Table LIV. Here are given 
the median scores made by both boys and girls pursuing the various 
curricula in each year of the high school. Data are presented for but 
three curricula for each sex, because of the very small number of students 
to be found in the other curricula offered. Examination of that part of 



128 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the table presenting the facts for the girls reveals appreciable differences. 
Averaging the medians for the four years we get a record for the girls in 
the college preparatory course of 95.9, as compared with 89.8 for those 
in the normal course and 86.8 for those in the commercial course. These 
differences are not large, and there is great overlapping of the distribu- 
tions, but they do indicate some selection. 

TABLE LIV 

Median Scores Made by Girls and Boys in the Various Curricula in the 
Bridgeport High School — Chapman-Welles Test 





Freshman 


Sophomore 


Junior 


Senior 


Average 


No. Cases 


Curriculum 


Girls 


College 


730 
75-4 
71.8 


97-7 
87.0 
89.4 


loi .0 

95-7 
91 .6 


III. 7 
98.0 
94-4 


95-9 
89.8 
86.8 


271 


Normal 

Commercial 


376 
715 


Total 


72.9 


90.8 


95-4 


99.2 


89.6 


1,362 








Boys 


College 


92.5 
86.3 
82.9 


105.3 
100.8 
100.9 


113. 
114.6 
121. 5 


118. 
III. 5 
1350 


107.2 

103 -3 
no. I 


371 


Scientific 


556 


Commercial 


148 


Total 


89.7 


101.8 


no. 7 


113. 8 


108.7 


1,075 











Turning to the other half of the table, which gives the facts for the 
boys, we observe no consistent tendency for any one of the groups to 
show superiority from year to year. There are some average differences, 
but they are not significant. The absence of any definite selection here 
may be due to the fact that no one of these curricula is strictly vocational, 
although the commercial course approaches it. If the number in the 
industrial arts course were sufficiently large to furnish reliable medians, 
it is probable that some selection would be found among the boys. 

In Mt. Vernon the National Intelligence Tests were given to the 
high-school Freshmen. The median scores made by both sexes in the 
different curricula are given in Table LV. The several academic 
curricula are grouped, and no data are given for the girls pursuing the 
industrial arts course because of an insufficient number of cases. It is 
at once apparent that in Mt. Vernon the academic curricula are attracting 
the students of superior ability regardless of sex, while the lowest record 
is made by the boys in the industrial arts course. Yet it should be noted 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 129 



that there is much overlapping, and that in the vocational courses there 
are many students of unusual talent. 

TABLE LV 

Median Scores Made by Freshman Girls and Boys in Each Type of Curriculum 
IN the Mt. Vernon High School — National Intelligence Tests 



Curriculum 


Girls 


Boys 


Median Score 


No. of Cases 


Median Score 


No. of Cases 


Academic 


I'^'i . ^ 


157 
85 


155-0 
147-5 
130.0 


180 


Commercial 

Industrial arts 


144. I 


67 
34 









PARENTAL OCCUPATION 

In Table LVI are given the scores made in the Chapman-Welles 
Test in the Bridgeport High School by the students grouped according 
to the occupation of the father, the boys and girls being kept separate 

TABLE LVI 

Scores Made by Girls and Boys from Different Occupational Groups in 
the Chapman-Welles Test. In Each Case the Median Scores Made 
IN THE Four High-School Years Are Averaged. D.a.ta from Bridgeport 
High School 



Parental Occupation 



Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Buildings trades 

Machine trades 

Miscellaneous trades 

Transportation service 

Personal service 

Common labor 

All manual-labor occupations, 

All occupations 



Girls 



Average of 
Medians 



91 
103 

94 
94 
95 
85 
91 
92 



QI .6 



No. of 
Cases 



213 

66 

191 

77 
55 
59 
54 
161 
74 
36 
23 
16 



404 



1,128 



Boys 



Average of 
Medians 



105 -4 
104.8 
109.4 
no. 5 
107.7 
107.8 
103.7 
107.3 
107.9 
112. 5 
loi .9 
95-0 



105.8 



106.9 



No. of 
Cases 



193 

59 

i6i 

71 
31 
39 
47 
131 
51 
28 

19 
17 



316 



because of the sex differences already noted. For each group the median 
scores for the four high-school years are averaged. Several of the 



130 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



occupational groups are omitted from this table because of inadequate 
representation in one or more years. For the purpose of focusing 
special attention on the laboring groups they are all combined into a 
single group at the bottom of the table. In this group are included 
the building, machine, printing, and miscellaneous trades, the transporta- 
tion workers, public service, personal service, and common labor. 

An examination of the table shows no clear differences. And the 
evidence from the separate years of the high school, not given here, 
supports this statement. Although for both the girls and the boys the 
combined labor groups do average a point or so lower than the entire 
high-school population, the difference is so small as to constitute an 
entirely insufficient basis on which to build sweeping conclusions. In 

TABLE LVII 

Median Scores Made by Freshmen of the Mt. Vernon 

High School in the National Intelligence Tests, 

Classified According to the Occupation of the 
Father 



Parental Occupation 


Median Score 


No. of Cases 


Proprietors 

Professional service . . . 


147 
158 
152 
152 
138 
152 
141 


9 

2 

5 
5 
2 

5 

5 


50 
25 
23 
22 


Managerial service 

Commercial service 


Clerical service 


13 
12 


Artisan-proprietors 


All laboring groups 


48 









Bridgeport at least the high-school students from the various occupational 
groups exhibit about the same measure of ability. This indicates again 
that the children of manual laborers who get into the high school are 
relatively highly selected, since the testing of an unselected group of 
children from this source shows an intelligence level appreciably lower 
than that of children from the professional and more prosperous classes. 
In Mt. Vernon, however, we do find some differences in the small 
group in the Freshman class for whom we have all the necessary data. 
The facts are presented in Table LVII. In order to secure a sufficiently 
large number of cases for statistical purposes all the laboring groups 
are combined. If the record made by the children of this combination 
group is compared with records made by those whose fathers are engaged 
in other occupations, the comparison is found to be somewhat unfavorable 
to the laboring classes, although the clerical service does show a slightly 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 131 

lower record. But even in Mt. Vernon the complete distributions show 
the differences to merit less attention than the points of agreement. 

THE IMMIGRANT 

The test records made by the high-school students in Bridgeport, 
classified according to the father's country of birth, appear in Table 
LVIII. Since this table is organized in the same way as the previous 
table giving similar data for the occupational groups, no explanation is 
necessary. If we compare the records made by the combined immigrant 
groups with those made by children of native parentage, they are found 
to be ahnost identical, the boys displaying slight superiority in the former 
and the girls in the latter group. These differences are not large enough 
to enable us to say, however, that the immigrant boys are superior and 
the immigrant girls inferior to the American children in this high school. 
With the exception of the Italian and Polish children, whose records are 
considerably below the average for both sexes, the children of foreign 
parentage appear to hold their own very well. 

TABLE LVIII 

Scores Made in Chapman-Welles Test by Girls and Boys, Classified Accord- 
ing TO Nativity of the Father. Median Scores Made in the Four 
School Years Are Averaged in Each Case — Bridgeport High School 



Country of Father's Birth 



United States 

Austria-Hungary 

British Empire 

Germany 

Ireland 

Italy 

Poland 

Russia 

Scandinavia 

All foreign countries, 



Girls 



Average of 
Medians 



92.5 



92. 1 
86.0 

90-3 
80.0 
83.8 
91.8 
93-9 



90.6 



No. of 
Cases 



586 

93 

82 
27 
98 

39 
8 

135 
51 



644 



Boys 



Average of 
Medians 



106.7 
109.2 
108.7 
III .9 
100.5 
99.0 

99-4 
109. 2 
106.3 



107. 1 



No. of 
Cases 



405 
97 
57 
19 
66 

55 

10 

132 

49 



493 



A similar situation is found among the Freshmen in the Mt. Vernon 
High School. Since the number of children of immigrant stock is 
small, they are all included in a single group. This gives us for the 
girls of native and foreign parentage the median scores of 155,5 ^^^ 151 -3 
respectively. The corresponding scores for the boys are 156.2 and 



132 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



154.0. There is in each case a sHght difference favoring the former, 
but hardly large enough to deserve comment. We may say, therefore, 
that, regardless of any differences in ability that may be found in 
unselected groups of children from the native and various immigrant 
stocks, such differences are practically obscure in the high-school 
population. 

FAMILY INFLUENCES 

A study of the records made in the tests by the firstborn and lastborn 
in families of two or more children brings to light evidence which supports 
the conclusions in an earlier chapter that selective influences are operat- 
ing at this point. In Table LIX are compared the scores made in the 
Chapman-Welles Test by the firstborn and lastborn children in the 
Bridgeport High School. As in previous tables, in order to get a single 
measure for each group the median scores made by the students in the 
four years are averaged. For both the boys and the girls, it will be 
observed, the firstborn make a score significantly larger than that made 
by the lastborn children. 

TABLE LIX 

Comparison of Scores M.^vde by Firstborn and Lastborn Children in 
THE Bridgeport High School in the Chapman-Welles Test. In 
Each Case the Median Scores Made in the Four High-School Years 
Are Averaged 





Girls 


Boys 


Order of Birth 


Average of 
Medians 


No. of 
Cases 


Average of 
Medians 


No. of 
Cases 


Firstborn 

Lastborn 


94.8 

87.8 


287 
247 


108.3 
102.8 


264 
205 



Among the Freshmen of the Mt. Vernon High School the same rela- 
tion is found, as an examination of Table LX will show. What is the 
explanation? Certainly not that firstborn are brighter than lastborn 
children, but rather that the former in the high school are more highly 
selected groups than the latter. Among certain elements of the population 
the firstborn child is more likely to be called on to sacrifice his own educa- 
tional opportunities in the interests of the family than is the lastborn. 
Especially, if he does not possess unusual ability, it seems that he will 
receive less encouragement than his younger brother or sister to remain in 
school. In other words, that general tendency of the high school to select 



PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 133 



children of superior talent and reject others operates with peculiar force 
among the firstborn, because of the influence of certain sociological 
factors. 

TABLE LX 

Comparison of Median Scores Made in the National Intelligence 

Tests by Firstborn and Lastborn Children in the 

Mt. Vernon High School 



Order of Birth 


Girls 


Boys 




Median Score 


No. of Cases 


Median Score 


No. of Cases 


Firstborn 

Lastborn 


151-3 
147-5 


27 
22 


154-2 
146.7 


38 
24 



It is also interesting to note the relation of ability to the number of 
children in the family, keeping in mind of course that the validity of 
these tests is assumed. The facts from the Bridgeport High School are 
presented in Table LXI. It will be observed that the students are 
classified into three groups on the basis of the number of children in the 
family from which they come. First, there is the family with an only 
child; second, the family with from two to four children; and third, 
the family with five or more children. According to this table the score 
seems to vary inversely with the size of the family for both the girls and 
the boys. 

TABLE LXI 

Comparison or Scores Made in Chapman-Welles Test by Children Coming 
FROM Families of Three Different Sizes in the Bridgeport High School. 
In Each Case the Median Scores Made in the Four High-School Years 
Are Averaged 



Number of Children 
IN THE Family 


Girls 


Boys 


Average of 
Medisns 


No. of 

Cases 


Average of 
Medians 


No. of 
Cases 


I 


94.2 
92.6 
89.3 


118 

599 
308 


113. 6 
107.0 
104.2 


112 


2-4 

5+ 


523 
263 



Data bearing on this same point from Mt. Vernon appear in Table 
LXII. The evidence here corroborates the findings in Bridgeport. 
Apparently the superior children exist in proportionately larger num- 
bers in the smaller families. But the explanation is probably to be 



134 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



found in the voluntary limitation of the birth-rate among the more 
intelligent and foresighted elements of the population. The ultimate 



TABLE LXII 

Comparison of Median Scores Made in the National Intelligence Tests by 

Children Coming from Families of Three Different Sizes in the 

Mt. Vernon High School 





No. OF Children 
IN THE Family 


Girls 


Boys 




Median Score 


No. of Cases 


Median Score 


No. of Cases 


I 


148.8 
146.7 
139.2 


9 

62 

19 


165.0 

151-4 
139.6 


8 


2-4 

5+ 


63 
39 



effect of such a policy on the soundness and quality of the racial stock 
is obvious, but a discussion of this matter is beyond the scope of this 
study. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 

There are in the United States 158,745 students enrolled in the 
private secondary schools, according to the report of the Federal Bureau 
for the school year 19 17-18. While the proportion of the total secondary- 
school population to be found in these schools has been decreasing 
gradually for fifty years and probably for an even longer period, the 
number is still sufficiently large to receive attention in any study of 
this character. This chapter may, therefore, be regarded as a supple- 
ment to the more detailed study of the social composition of the public 
high-school population reported in the preceding chapters. It will 
throw additional light on the extension of the opportunities of secondary 
education to the various strata of American society. 

But there is a second consideration that lends significance to this 
part of the study. It has been remarked that in the primitive peoples 
inhabiting various parts of the globe today we may see our contempora- 
neous ancestors. While this construction must not be taken literally, since 
each people, even the most primitive, has experienced a longer or shorter 
period of evolution that has produced certain unique and special charac- 
teristics, it does contain a certain element of truth. So in the private 
secondary schools of today we see preserved some of those features 
which characterized the secondary institutions of a few generations ago, 
before the rise of the public high school. By comparing the high-school 
population with that of the private secondary schools we may, therefore, 
get some idea of the distance we have traveled in actual practice from 
the conception of secondary education as class education. Of course 
there are certain forces operating today to determine the character of 
the population of these private schools which did not affect the schools 
of the earlier period, but in general the impression made by the com- 
parison probably corresponds with the facts. The elements in the popu- 
lation which patronize the private secondary schools today in all 
probability gave their children a secondary education in the days when 
it was not free and when it looked toward the college altogether. To be 
sure, a considerable number of parents who do not patronize the private 
secondary schools would send their children to these schools today if 
there were no public schools of secondary grade, but it is not probable 

135 



136 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



that these additions would greatly change the social complexion of the 
student population there enrolled. 



THE SCHOOLS STUDIED 

Data were secured from two schools: the one, a day school in the 
Middle West, and the other, a famous boarding-school in New England. 
They are respectively the University of Chicago High School in Chicago, 
Illinois, and the Phillips-Exeter Academy at Exeter, New Hampshire. 

Owing to the very rapid development of Roman Catholic secondary 
schools during the last twenty years, an effort was made to secure the 
facts from one of these schools, but without success. The administrative 
officers approached seemed not to be interested in a study of this 
character. 

Perhaps a few words should be set down concerning the nature of the 
two schools studied. Exeter Academy is a non-sectarian school offering 

TABLE LXIII 

Occupations of Fathers or Guardians of 201 Students in Phillips-Exeter 
Academy and 418 in the University of Chicago High School 



Parental Occupation 


Exeter Academy 


U. OF C. High School 


Total 


Number 


Percentage 


Number 


Percentage 


Number 


Percentage 


Proprietors 

Professional service 

Managerial service 

Commercial service 

Clerical service 

Artisan-proprietors 

Agricultural service 

Manual labor 


88 

62 

21 

15 

5 

3 

2 

2 

3 


44 
310 
IO-5 

7-5 

2-5 

i-S 
1 .0 
1 .0 
1 .0 


176 

130 

50 

41 

8 

5 
2 


42.1 

311 

12.0 

9.8 

1.9 

I .2 

■5 


264 

192 

71 

56 

13 

8 

4 
2 

9 


42.7 
310 

9.0 
2.1 

1-3 

•7 

•3 

1-4 


Unknown 


6 


1-4 




Total 


201 


100. 


418 


100. 


619 


100. 







a four-year academic course and enrolling about 575 students, all of 
whom are boys The University of Chicago High School is coeducational 
and non-sectarian and is definitely college preparatory. Its registration 
is about 475. Both schools have tuition fees, that of the former being 
$200 and that of the latter $275. In addition to the tuition fee at 
^Exeter there are the annual charges for room and board and other 
assessments which range from $336 to $1,091, according to the catalogue 
for 1920-21. 



POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 



137 



Data were not secured from the entire population in either school, 
since it was felt that a random sampling would be sufficient for our 
purposes. As shown in Table LXIII returns were received from 201 
students in Exeter and 418 in the University of Chicago High School. 



THE PARENTAL OCCUPATION 



As in the study of the public high school, the most significant thing 
here is the occupation of the parent or guardian. The facts for the two 
schools are presented in Table LXIII. A glance at this table makes it 
clear that the social composition of the student population in these 




Proprietors (42-7) 

Professional service (31.0) 

Managerial service (11.5) 

Commercial service (90) 

Clerical service (2.1) 

Artisan-proprietors (1.3) 

Agricultural service (.7) 

Manual labor (.3) 

Unknown (1.4) 



Fig. 39. — Showing by percentages the occupations of the fathers or guardians 
of 619 students in Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago High 
School. June, 192 1. 

schools is decidedly different from that of the public high-school popula- 
tion. And, furthermore, Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University 
of Chicago High School draw their students from almost exactly the 
same elements in the population. About the only difference worthy of 
mention is the slightly larger representation of the managerial and 
commercial workers in the latter and a correspondingly greater per- 
centage of proprietors and clerical workers in the former. 

The percentages for the two schools combined are presented graph- 
ically in Figure 39. It will be observed that the proprietors have the 
largest representation, with 42.7 per cent of the students. Then follows 



138 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

the professional service with 31.0 per cent. No other group can be said 
to be well represented in these schools. Consequently it may be said 
that private secondary schools of the more exclusive type are organized 
practically for these two classes in the population. The relatively poor 
representation of the managerial service is perhaps surprising until it is 
recalled that quite a large proportion of the purely managerial positions 
are not high-grade positions and that many of the individuals holding 
these positions have been promoted from some form of skilled labor. 
Considering their numbers in the population the commercial workers 
have a fair representation, while the clerical workers are almost wholly 
absent. There are very few artisan-proprietors and farmers; and the 
many grades and varieties of manual labor combined account for only 
.3 per cent of the total enrolment of the two schools. It is probable 
that more detailed and comprehensive knowledge of these few cases 
would reveal the influence of certain special circumstances not ordinarily 
associated with manual labor. 

It is interesting at this point to make a comparison with the public 
high-school population. This is done in Table LXIV. According to 

TABLE LXIV 

Occupations of Fathers or Guardians of 17,265 Stxidents in the Public High 
Schools of Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, St. Louis, and Seattle, and 619 
Students in the Phillips-Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago 
High School 



Parental Occupation 



High Schools of 

Bridgeport, Mt. Vernon, 

St. Louis, Seattle 



Phillips-Exeter 
Academy and University 
of Chicago High School 



Proprietors 

Professional service 
Managerial service 
Commercial service 
Clerical service . . . 
Artisan-proprietors . 
Agricultural service 
Manual labor .... 
Unknown 

Total 



42.7 
310 

II-5 
9.0 
2.1 
1-3 
•7 
■3 
1-4 



100. o 



this table only two occupational groups have a greater proportional 
representation in the private than in the public secondary schools — the 
professional service and the proprietors. All the rest are less well 
represented, although only slightly so in the case of the commerical 
service. Then follow the managerial service, the clerical service, the 



POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 



139 



artisan-proprietors, the agricultural service, and finally manual labor. 
It is in this last group that the most pronounced difference is to be found. 
While 29.1 per cent of all the students in the public high schools come 
from the laboring classes, only a negligible proportion of those in these 
private schools are from this source. Thus, while public secondary 
education in the United States is still highly selective, it is certainly 
much less so than private. And, assuming that these private schools 
do give us a relatively reliable picture of the social composition of our 
secondary-school population of a few generations ago, it is clear that we 
have traveled a considerable distance from the conception of secondary 
education as class education. 

NATIVITY OF THE FATHER 

The students in these two schools are very largely of American 
parentage. This is shown in Table LXV in which they are classified 

TABLE LXV 

Nativity of Fathers of 619 Students in the Phillips- 
Exeter Academy and the University of Chicago 
High School 



Country of Father's Birth 

United States 

Austria-Hungary 

Britisii Empire 

France 

Germany 

Ireland 

Italy 

Russia 

Scandinavia 

All others 

Total 



Number 



540 
6 

41 
4 

17 
3 



619 



Percentage 



87 



according to the nativity of the father. In the two schools combined 
87.3 per cent of the fathers of the students were born in this country, 
and over one-half of the remainder were born in English-speaking 
countries. It will be rioticed further that the south and east of Europe 
are practically without representation. These schools draw from the 
native stock and the peoples from the north and west of Europe. 



NUMBER OF BROTHERS AND SISTERS 

In view of the foregoing facts concerning occupation and nativity it 
is to be expected that the families from which these children come should 



140 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

be somewhat smaller than those from which the public high school is 
recruited. And such is the case to a small degree, as may be seen by 
examining Table LXVI. According to this table the median number of 
brothers and sisters is higher for the students in the public high schools 
in each of the cities than it is for those in either of the private schools. 
This figure is lowest in the University of Chicago High School, where it 
is but 1.3, and highest in the Bridgeport High School, where it reaches 2.3. 

TABLE LXVI 

Median Nximber of Brothers and Sisters of the 

Students in the Public High Schools of Four 

Cities and in Two Private Secondary Schools 



Secondary Schools 



Bridgeport 

Mt. Vernon 

Seattle 

St. Louis 

Exeter Academy 

University of Chicago High School . 



Median Number 
Brothers and 

Sisters 



2-3 
2. I 
2.0 

1.8 
1-7 
1-3 



In conclusion it should be pointed out that the differences between 
the public high school and these private secondary schools are actually 
greater than statistics indicate. In all probability, for example, there 
is an important average difference between the managerial service 
represented in the two types of schools. Fathers engaged in these 
occupations who send their children to the private school hold positions 
somewhat superior as a rule to those held by fathers similarly classed 
who send their children to the public schools. Many of those represent- 
ing the managerial occupations in the high school are foremen while 
this grade is practically absent in the private school. The same may 
be said of each of the remaining occupational groups, when examined 
in the concrete. Thus we may conclude that, while the public high school 
is still a class institution in a very real sense, yet the great increase in 
the secondary-school population of the last forty years marks a consider- 
able advance toward the democratization of secondary education. 



PART III. CONCLUSION AND INTERPRETATION 

CHAPTER XVI 

THE SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF AMERICAN 
SECONDARY EDUCATION 

In view of the foregoing analysis it is clear that we in America have 
not abandoned in practice the selective principle in secondary education, 
even though we have established a free public high school in almost 
every community in the country. It is not strictly in accord with the 
facts to say that "a, public high school differs from an elementary 
school chiefly in the age of its children." It is true that children in 
high school are on the average somewhat older than those in the elemen- 
tary school, yet, as a matter of fact, there is not very much difference 
in the ages of pupils enrolled in the eighth grade and those in the first 
year of the high school. High-school students, even today and in spite 
of the amazing growth of the_high-^cJi.ooJ_enrolment since- 1880, are a 
highly selected group! And this difference is just as important as the 
difference in age. Secondary education is not education for adolescence, 
as elementary education is education for childhood, but rather education 
for a SQ]£,cted_group^f^ adolescents, as we have seen in the preceding 
chapters, and as we shall note again now in summary. 

PARENTAL OCCUPATION AND THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL 

There is a close relation between parental occupation and the 
privileges of secondary education. If we examine the entire high-school 
population, we find certain occupational groups very well and others 
very poorly represented, in proportion to their numbers in the general 
population. Among the former are the five_^reat_jiqn4abor groups 
with professional service occupying the most advantageous position, 
followed by the proprietors, commercial service, managerial service, 
and clerical service. At the other end of the series are the lower grades 
of labor with common labor almost unrepresented and personal service, 
miners, lumber-workers, and fishermen, and the miscellaneous trades 
and machine operatives in the manufacturing and mechanical industries, 
occupying somewhat better positions in the order named. The other 
occupational groups are found between these two extremes. Next to 
the non-labor groups are the printing trades and the public service, 

141 



142 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

followed by the machine trades, transportation service, and the building 
trades. In general, the order here given reflects the social and economic 
status of the occupation, its educational and intellectual standards, 
and the stability of employment. 

Not only do these various occupational classes exhibit different 
degrees of representation in the high school at the beginning of the 
course, but those very groups that are under-represented in the Freshman 
year have the smallest ratio of Seniors to Freshmen. In fact, the 
representation of an occupation in the first year of the high school is 
at the same time a fairly accurate measure of its tendency to persist 
through the fourth year. Consequently, the differences among the 
groups become more and more pronounced in the successive years of the 
school. The student population gradually becomes more and more 
homogeneous as the source from which it is drawn becomes more narrow, 
until by the time the Senior year of the high school is reached, the 
student body exhibits a distinctly class character. Here the represen- 
tatives of the laboring classes are few indeed in proportion to their 
number in the general population, and the lower grades of labor have 
practically disappeared. This is brought out in striking fashion by the 
data from Mt. Vernon in which the sixth grade is contrasted with the 
last year of the high school. 

Evidence in corroboration of these conclusions, drawn from a study 
of the high-school population, is derived from the investigation of 
groups of children of high-school age not in high school in Seattle and 
Bridgeport. In the former city, a study of 514 children of high-school 
age at work showed a social composition very different from that of the 
high-school population. Here, four great labor groups — the building 
trades, common labor, machine trades, and transportation service — con- 
tribute over 60 per cent of the children. The situation is just the reverse 
of that found in the high school. In Bridgeport a similar condition is 
found. In the evening high school of that city the sons and daughters 
of the laboring classes constitute the great majority of the enrolment 
with the machine trades in the lead, followed by the miscellaneous 
trades, common labor, and the building trades. In the trade school the 
situation is about the same except that the representation of the laboring 
classes is yet larger and common labor forges ahead of the miscellaneous 
trades to second place. Apparently the children of the laboring classes are 
destined to follow in the footsteps of their fathers. This representation 
of the labor groups is still further increased in that group of educational 
unfortunates enrolled in the compulsory continuation classes in which 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 143 

common labor holds first place, accounting for over one-fourth of the 
entire registration. 

These differences in the extent of educational opportunity are 
further accentuated through the choice of curricula. As a rule, 
those groups which are poorly represented in the high school patronize 
the more narrow and practical curricula, the curricula which stand as 
terminal points in the educational system and which prepare for wage- 
earning. And the poorer their representation in high school, the 
greater is the probability that they will enter these curricula. The one- 
and two-year vocational courses, wherever offered, draw their regis- 
tration particularly, from the ranks of labor. This tendency is con- 
siderably more pronounced among the girls than among the boys. The 
former seem to be peculiarly bound by the social class from which they 
come. One is surprised at the unmistakable class character of the girls' 
college preparatory course in a high school such as that in Bridgeport. 
Furthermore, the thesis may be cautiously advanced that these differ- 
ences appear somewhat more clearly in the East than in the West, but 
it is hardly safe to generalize on the basis of returns from four cities. 

A study of expectations following graduation, as given by the 
students, indicates that this selective principle continues to operate 
beyond the period of secondary education. Those classes which are 
least well represented in the last year of the high school will apparently 
be yet less well represented in the colleges and universities. And, as 
in the case of the choice of curricula, this tendency is more marked 
among the girls than among the boys, in the East than in the West. 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE CULTURAL LEVEL 

Parental occupation, as one index of cultural level, exhibits a close 
relation to educational opportunity. The same is true of the possession 
of a telephone in the home, according to the returns from Bridgeport 
and Mt. Vernon. In the former city, it was found that telephones are 
two and one-half times as frequent in the hornes of high-school students 
as in those of children attending the trade school, and seven times as 
frequent as in the homes of the children in the compulsory continuation 
classes. Furthermore, the percentage of telephones increases decidedly 
from year to year in the high school. Thus we find but 39.7 per cent of 
the students in the Freshman year coming from homes with telephones, 
whereas in the Senior year, this percentage is 60.3. There are also wide 
differences among the curricula in this respect. In the case of the girls, 
telephones are almost twice as frequent in the homes of those who are 



144 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

enrolled in the college preparatory as in the homes of those taking the 
commercial course. And these curricular differences are less marked 
among the boys than among the girls as was observed in the study of the 
parental occupation. Data from Mt. Vernon, including returns from 
the sLxth grade, support in every particular these conclusions drawn from 
the Bridgeport study. 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND FAMILY INFLUENCES 

All the evidence brought to light in this study points to the impor- 
tance of the family as a powerful factor in determining attendance at 
high school. The mortality of parents of high-school students is found 
to be considerably below the expectation for children of high-school age, 
and does not increase perceptibly from the Freshman to the Senior year. 
In fact, according to the returns from Mt. Vernon, the mortality of 
parents is appreciably higher among sixth-grade children than among 
students in the last year of the high school. An examination of the 
various groups of children of high-school age not in high school shows a 
much higher mortality of parents here than among high-school students. 
In the case of young people attending the evening high school in Bridge- 
port, the mortality of parents is extraordinarily high, more than two and 
one-half times as high as among those attending the day high school. 
Unquestionably the disorganization of the home through the death of a 
parent is reflected in the diminution of the opportunities of secondary 
education. 

While the evidence is neither quite so clear nor quite so objective, 
apparently the engaging in remunerative employment on the part of the 
mother acts in the same way as the death of a parent. Comparisons 
made among the groups studied usually hold in the one case as in the 
other. Yet, it must not be forgotten that the working mother is 
usually just one element in a complex social situation. 

The influence of the size of the family on educational opportunity 
is not altogether clear. On the average, those elements in the population 
who do not patronize the high school have larger families than those 
who do, but there is no evidence to indicate that the size of the family 
itself is a determining factor; for the number of brothers and sisters is 
no smaller among Seniors than among Freshmen, and the very large 
families have just as high representation in the last as in the first year 
of the high school. Likewise the very small families do not apparently 
increase their representation in the later years of the high school. 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 145 

The order of birth seems to be a matter of more importance, although 
the complexity of the situation is hardly compatible with any but the 
most cautious of statements. Our clearest evidence, drawn from the four 
groups studied in Bridgeport, indicates that the firstborn has somewhat 
more limited chances of securing a high-school education than the 
lastborn child. It is on him particularly that the burden of family 
support is likely t^ fall, if one or more of the children must help to 
bear it. 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE IMMIGRANT 

Returns from Bridgeport and Mt. Vernon indicate very clearly 
that children of native parentage attend the public high school in 
proportionately much larger numbers than do children of immigrant 
parentage. There are certain immigrant groups, however, that approxi- 
mate, if they do not surpass, the native stock in their zeal for secondary 
education, altogether apart from the social and economic handicaps 
under which the immigrant labors. Among these, probably the Russian 
Jews stand at the top, followed by the Irish, the Germans, and the 
peoples of the British Empire. At the other extreme are the Italians, 
the Poles, and the races of the old Austro-Hungarian Empire who 
patronize the high school in exceedingly small measure. Disregarding 
the record of the Russian Jews, it may be stated as a general principle 
that the farther east and south we go in Europe, as the source of our 
immigrants, we find less interest in secondary education. 

The well-known tendency among our own people for the girls to pat- 
ronize the high school in greater numbers than the boys is reversed among 
certain immigrant stocks. Thus, while in the Bridgeport High School 
there are but 74 boys of native parentage to every 100 girls, among the 
Italians this ratio of boys to girls is 154. This social trait, if such it 
may be called, varies much from group to group. Beginning with the 
Irish who exhibit the American trait in approximately its native strength 
of sending girls rather than boys to high school, the proportion of boys 
steadily increases as we pass east and south into Europe. Among the 
peoples of the "new" immigration the right of the girl to a secondary 
education is not recognized as on a parity with that of the boy. 

In choice of curricula the girls of immigrant stock are clearly less 
inclined toward the college preparatory course than are the girls of 
native parentage. Curiously enough the reverse is true of the boys, 
but, since the boys of American parentage are exceptionally well repre- 
sented in the scientific course, which in reality is a college preparatory 



146 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

course, no large significance should be attached to this difference between 
the foreign and native stock. 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND THE NEGRO 

While for the country as a whole the proportion of pegroes of high- 
school age to be found in our high schools is very small, in the city of 
St. Louis they do about as well as the whites. A study of the student 
population in the negro high school of this city helps us to understand 
the difficulties that stand in the way of educational achievement on the 
part of members of this race. The fathers of the students in this high 
school are for the most part engaged in manual labor, and the lower and 
less respectable grades of manual labor, particularly personal service 
and common labor. The negro family exhibits a large measure of 
disorganization, as indicated by such crude and unsatisfactory phe- 
nomena as a deceased parent or a working mother. In the high-school 
population of St. Louis the parental mortality for the negro children 
is well over twice as high as for the children of white stock, and the 
frequency of the working mother is between five and six times as great 
for the students of the one as for those of the other race. All of which 
makes it safe to conclude that nowhere else in the nation is there a 
similarly large representation of any other race living on the same social 
and economic level that is sending as large a proportion of its children 
to high school as the negroes of St. Louis. 

The negroes exhibit in a pronounced fashion the American trait of 
sending a larger proportion of their girls than of their boys to high school. 
In choice of curricula, theHegro girls differ from their wdite sisters 
chiefly in avoidance of the two-year commercial curriculum and in their 
very frequent selection of the home economics course. The rcegro boys 
avoid the general and concentrate on the manual training course. 
Following graduation, the negro girls expect to attend normal school 
and enter professional service in much larger numbers than do the whites. 
And they are not apparently looking forward to clerical service in 
proportionate numbers. Surprisingly, in the case of the boys, the only 
important difference between the two races is the much larger expectation 
of college attendance on the part of the Jjegroes. It should be kept in 
mind, however, that these conclusions are based altogether on statements 
by the students, and consequently require considerable discounting. 

THE PUBLIC HIGH SCHOOL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL SELECTION 

Not only is the high-school population selected sociologically, but 
it is selected psychologically as well. Children of high-school age not 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 147 

in high school, whether they be in the evening high school, the trade 
school, or the continuation classes, show a lower intelligence rating on 
the average than do those in high school. But there is much overlapping 
in the distribution of ability for the two groups. There is much excellence 
out of, as well as much mediocrity in, the high school. The trade-school 
population shows a particularly wide distribution of ability. 

In the high school itself the traditional academic curricula draw a 
higher type of ability, on the average, than do the newer and vocational 
curricula. Here also, however, the overlapping of the distributions is 
pronounced, and perhaps even more significant than the average differ- 
ence. 

The children from the laboring classes exhibit ability of practically 
as high grade as do those from the other occupational groups. This is 
probably due to the much greater elimination of children of labor 
parentage. Likewise the children of immigrants do about as well on 
the tests as do the children of native stock. 

Firstborn make records somewhat superior to the records of lastborn 
children. This is probably to be explained in terms of greater elimination 
and thus more rigid selection among the former. The intelligence score 
also varies inversely with the size of the family. The explanation here 
is apparently to be found in the limitation of births among the more 
foresighted elements in the population. 

THE POPULATION OF THE PRIVATE SECONDARY SCHOOL 

In the population of the private secondary school, which charges a 
considerable tuition fee and which is fundamentally college preparatory 
in its function, we probably have as accurate a picture as we can get 
today of the sources from which the private academy drew its students 
before the rise of the free public high school. While this picture is 
certainly not accurate to the details, the general outlines in all proba- 
bility do not falsify the facts. 

Taking the student populations of Exeter Academy and the Univer- 
sity of Chicago High School, we find the laboring classes practically 
absent, in contrast to a representation of 29 per cent in the public high 
school. Furthermore, these two schools draw almost three-fourths of 
their students from two occupational groups — the proprietors and 
professional service. Also almost 90 per cent of these students are of 
native parentage. Thus, while we may say that public secondary 
education is still highly selective, it is obvious that it has been and 
might be much more so. 



148 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

CONCLUSION 

Little need be said in conclusion. The story that has been told in 
the foregoing pages is not a new one. Misfortune, as well as fortune, 
passes from generation to generation. The children of unfortunate par- 
entage are unfortunate, assuming here that the current secondary edu- 
cation is worth to the individual some fraction of its cost. The ancient 
adage, "To them that hath shall be given," is true today as in olden 
times. When not preserved through the operation of biological forces, 
the inequalities among individuals and classes are still perpetuated to a 
considerable degree in the social inheritance. While the establishment 
of the free pubHc high school marked an extraordinary educational 
advance, it did not by any means equalize educational opportunity; 
for the cost of tuition is not the entire cost of education, or even the 
larger part of it. Education means leisure, and leisure is an expensive 
luxury. In most cases today this leisure must be guaranteed the indi- 
vidual by the family. Thus secondary education remains largely a 
matter for family initiative and concern, and reflects the inequalities 
of family means and ambition. 



CHAPTER XVII 
THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 

More than twenty years ago John Dewey, in the opening paragraph 
of his School and Society, gave this expression to his conception of the 
ideal relation that society should sustain toward its children: "What 
the best and wisest parent wants for his own child, that must the com- 
munity want for all of its children. Any other ideal for our schools is 
narrow and unlovely; acted upon, it destroys our democracy." With 
this ideal, properly interpreted, all believers in democracy are in sympa- 
thetic and complete accord. 

At the present time, in the light of the facts revealed in this study, 
it is clear that we are very far from the realization of this ideal in our 
own country, at least in so far as secondary education is concerned. 
We are probably as near to it, if not somewhat nearer, than are the 
people of any other nation;, and yet the facts do not set especially well 
with our professions of equality of opportunity, [assuming of course that 
secondary education does increase an individual's chances for what we 
call success in modern life, as well as contribute to the general enrichment 
of life. In a very large measure participation in the privileges of a 
secondary education is contingent on social and economic status. In this 
connection, as in others, it would be difficult, in the thought of Bernard 
Shaw, to place too much emphasis on the need of a child's using wisdom 
in the choice of its parents; and yet, in view of the differential birth- 
rate, the number of chances of choosing the more highly educated and 
well-to-do parents is distinctly limited, and is gradually becoming 
more so. 

UNIVERSAL SECONDARY EDUCATION 

But it may be maintained that this ideal of equality of educational 
opportunity does not mean sameness of opportunity, nor does it mean 
necessarily equality in years of educational experience. Some natures, 
as certain soils, will respond to more intensive cultivation than others. 
Surely no one would defend the proposition that all persons should 
continue their education through the three years of the university 
graduate school in the interests of equality of educational opportunity. 
The endowment of the individual must be recognized in each case. The 

149 



150 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

most that can be demanded in recognition of the ideal is that the poten- 
tialities of the individual be realized. It is obvious that the selective 
principle, resulting in elimination, must appear at some point in our 
educational system. But at what point should the principle appear, 
and under what conditions should it operate? 

This really raises the question of the wisdom and justice of universal 
secondary education. In theory we are apparently rather definitely 
committed to the idea, although in practice we are yet very far from its 
realization, as this investigation shows. If the course on which we have 
embarked is unwise, it should be changed while there is time and in 
the light of a thorough analysis of the matter. Should Dewey's ideal 
apply to the period of secondary education ? What is the place of sec- 
ondary education in a democracy ? Let us pass to the various consid- 
erations which these questions bring to mind. 

THE FINANCIAL OBJECTION 

It has been pointed out with truth that our people have embarked 
upon this ambitious program of secondary education without fully 
realizing the financial burden that such a program entails. The increase 
in high-school enrolment has not been unattended by increasing costs. 
In fact today we hear from various quarters the complaints of the tax- 
payer as he is asked to meet increasingly heavy demands on his pocket- 
book for educational purposes. Undoubtedly a further extension of 
secondary education will mean greater educational costs. The education 
of all children of high-school age would probably involve four times the 
present expenditure, with no improvement in the quality of instruction. 
This statement of course disregards those economies that would be 
realized in the small high schools through a more intensive use of the 
present teaching stafif and material equipment. This would result in an 
increase in the cost of secondary education to a figure somewhere between 
one-half and three-quarters of a billion of dollars. And in the minds 
of some people such expenditure is too stupendous to be entertained 
for a moment. 

A further analysis is needed, however, to discover the real nature 
of this opposition to further educational expenditure. Is it that the 
economic system is unable to bear the added burden; that the methods 
of taxation are antiquated and not adapted to modern conditions; or 
merely that the people do not regard a further extension of secondary 
education as worth the cost ? The first of these questions must certainly 
be answered in the negative. Any nation that can spend billions on 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 151 

armaments can spend a half billion on secondary education, if it so 
desires. A people that spends annually three billions of dollars on 
luxurious services, over two billions on tobacco and snuff, one billion on 
candy, and three-quarters of a billion on perfumery and cosmetics, need 
fear neither bankruptcy nor revolution by even quadrupling the present 
expenditure for secondary education. The economic system can bear it. 

An affirmative answer to the second question can be as easily 
defended as the negative answer to the first. The methods of taxation 
for the support of education are antiquated and do not insure an equitable 
distribution of the burden. A century ago the property tax was fair, 
because property was tangible and usually a satisfactory index of an 
individual's ability to pay. Today the situation is quite different, due 
to industrialization and the increased complexity of an economic life 
in which property assumes many intangible forms and is no longer a 
fair index of ability to pay. The increase of educational costs demands, 
on the part of educators, close attention to the problems of taxation. 

The third question is also an important and even basic one. [We may 
at least say with assurance that, if the majority of the people want a 
further extension of secondary education, they will get it regardless of 
the cost, that is, if they want it_as much or more than they want tobacco, 
snuff, candy, perfumery, cosmetics, and other things, for which they are 
spending their money now. -^Whether or not they want it will depend 
on two things: first, the value of secondary education; and second, 
their realization of its value. Both of these are, in large measure, prob- 
lems for the educator. On the one hand, he must organize and administer 
secondary education in such a way and with such clarity of purpose 
that its value will be unequivocal and patent to the ordinary citizen 
without the interposition of educational sophistry and cant. Educational 
purpose and educational accomplishment must be stated in terms of 
those things that most people regard as valuable and worth while. 
\Qn the other hand, the educator must inform the citizen that secondary 
education is so organized and so administered. Only when people are 
made to feel that education is as valuable as tobacco and cosmetics will 
they be as willing to spend their money for the one as for the other. 
But certainly the matter of cost is not in itself a sufficient reason for 
opposing universal secondary education. 

PUBLIC SUPPORT OF SELECTIVE EDUCATION 

There is another side to this question of finance that deserves 
attention. At the present time the public high school is attended quite 



152 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

largely by the children of the more well-to-do classes. This afifords us 
the spectacle of a privilege being extended at public expense to those 
very classes that already occupy the privileged positions in modern 
society. The poor are contributing to provide secondary education for 
the children of the rich, but are either too poor or too ignorant to avail 
themselves of the opportunities which they help to provide. LBut it will 
be answered that the high school is supported by taxation, and that the 
poor do not pay taxes. This is obviously an unsound position to assume, 
since all people who wear clothes, eat food, and live in houses do pay 
taxes either directly or indirectly. Of course, no assumption is made 
here that all taxes are shifted to the consuming public, for they are not. 
Some are shifted altogether, others only partially, and still others not at 
all. The consumer does pay taxes, but not the consumer only — this 
and no more is assumed, but it is sufficient to warrant the foregoing 
statement. 

It is sometimes said in extenuation of this condition that society 
as a whole profits from the education of the few through the superior 
service that the few render; and there is much that may be said in 
support of this theoretical position. In fact this is about the only 
justification for public support of higher and professional education, 
which are necessarily selective. Yet in practice it must be admitted 
that many individuals use the gifts of society for self-aggrandizement and 
are quite unconscious of any social obligation. This is particularly true 
of education in its various forms' which has been regarded too much as a 
natural right or gift from God and too little as a preparation for social 
service. Indeed in many quarters it is even looked upon primarily as 
a means of avoiding the hard and disagreeable work of the world and 
a sure road to those callings that combine high remuneration and 
respectability with the comforts of life. Elementary education, which 
is guaranteed to all, may perhaps be regarded as a natural right, but 
secondary education, limited as it is, can be justified at all only in terms 
of the unqualified recognition on the part of the high-school student of 
the social obligation involved. There is no such recognition in the public 
high school today, although the narrow source of its students makes 
this obviously and peculiarly necessary. 

THE PERIL TO SOCIAL STABILITY 

In some countries the universalizing of secondary education would 
be viewed with alarm on the grounds that it would produce social 
instability and result in the disintegration of the established order. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 153 

Indeed, such a disquieting view has been taken by some foreign educators 
of the effect of our limited (though extensive in comparison with other 
countries) secondary education on American society. The idea back 
of this view is apparently that it is dangerous for any society to produce 
a larger number of trained minds capable of self-direction and critical 
thought than may be required to fill the customary positions of leader- 
ship. Unquestionably there is something in this argument, if we look 
at it from the standpoint of those occupying the strategic and privileged 
positions in the existing order and who may consequently be expected 
to lose through any change that might be effected. On the other hand, 
if we are interested in the welfare of the great mass of the people, there 
is nothing to fear in the universalizing of secondary education; in the 
very considerable increase in the number of individuals capable of 
thoughtful leadership in every class of the population; in the presence 
of larger numbers of persons qualified to serve as informed and critical 
followers in the various social groups. In other words, any individual 
or any class depending on special privilege of any sort for its position in 
society has good reason for fearing the further extension of secondary 
education; all others may look upon such change with equanimity. 
It is of course assumed that this further extension would take into 
consideration all differences in individual aptitude and interest. 

THE PSYCHOLOGICAL DIFFICULTY 

Perhaps the strongest objection to universal secondary education 
is the psychological objection, to which reference has been made in an 
earlier paragraph. The wide range of intelligence among children of a 
particular age is well known, and we may assume the same for other 
psychological traits. Nature has thus set limits to the educahiiity of 
all her c hildren . In some this limit is very low, as in others it is extra- 
ordinarily high; at the one extreme is the idiot who can profit but little 
from either experience or instruction, while at the other is the child of 
genius for whom the most difficult intellectual tasks are easy and whose 
hours of instruction are very productive. To the one, secondary 
education is out of the question, while to the other, it is scarcely the 
beginning of an education that will continue throughout life. 

If, however, we think less in terms of the extremes, which account 
for but a small proportion of the total number of cases, and more in 
terms of the great mass of individuals in between, much of the force of 
this objection is destroyed. There are undoubtedly individuals at the 
lower end of the distribution for whom education during the adolescent 



154 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

years would be unprofitable, because intellectual maturity is already 
practically attained, and on a very low level. Just how high the intelli- 
gence level should be in order to profit from twelve years of instruction, 
which takes the child through the elementary and secondary schools, is a 
question as yet unanswered. For certain types of subject-matter the 
level obviously would be higher than for others. It seems reasonable 
to assume that, through the proper adaptation of subject-matter and 
methods of instruction, secondary education might be so administered 
as to be profitable for all except those who are clearly feeble-minded. 
This would of course involve a thoroughgoing departure from the cur- 
ricula and methods of the conventional type, which are the legitimate 
offspring of the selective principle. 

That there is some scientific justification for the psychological objec- 
tion to universal secondary education is admitted, but such justification 
does not extend to present practice. Much might be said for a secondary 
education that is based frankly and definitely on the principle of psycho- 
logical selection, but ours is not of that type. It is true, as this study 
shows, that on the average, high-school students exhibit a higher intelli- 
gence level than do those children of high-school age not in high school. 
But what is the explanation ? That the high school has purposefully 
selected these individuals because of their superior ability? Not at 
all, or at least not altogether, by any means. It seems just as probable 
that the selection is sociological first and psychological second; that 
children enter and remain in high school because they come from the 
homes of the influential and more fortunate classes, and not because 
of their greater ability. It is the usual thing for these two to go together, 
but a society is conceivable in which by some chance the individuals in 
the upper social and economic strata incline toward intellectual medi- 
ocrity. In such a society, assuming the large parental influence in deter- 
mining educational opportunity which characterizes our own system, 
the children in high school might represent on the average a lower 
type of ability than those on the outside. Admitting that this is an 
extreme statement of the case, it nevertheless contains a certain element 
of truth. The high-school population includes many individuals of 
mediocre and inferior ability, and the population of high-school age not 
in high school includes many of superior talent, although the proportion 
on the upper levels is larger inside the high school. At the present 
time we have neither universal secondary education, on the one hand, 
nor selection according to any defensible principle, on the other. 



THE HIGH SCHOOL AND DEMOCRACY 155 

LITTLE PLACE IN INDUSTRY FOR ADOLESCENTS 

One other consideration favoring a further extension of secondary 
education deserves mention.) In the Cleveland vocational survey it 
was found that there is p rascally no place in modern industry for 
children under sixteen or seventeen years of age. Normally, below this 
age a child enters an occupation with but little profit to either himself or 
society. Since there is so much that needs to be done in preparing these 
young people for the many and varied responsibilities of citizenship, 
vocation, parenthood, and the other important activities of life, and since 
this can hardly be accomplished in the elementary school, it seems the 
part of wisdom to enrich their lives and equip them to become more 
useful members of society through the agency of the secondary school. 

A BROADER PROGRAM NECESSARY 

The methods to be employed in bringing the opportunities of second- 
ary education to practically all adolescents, regardless of class distinc- 
tion, can hardly be discussed here. Undoubtedly our compulsory- 
education laws will have to be extended beyond the period of elementary 
education, and several states are already leading the way. We shall 
have to abandon our conventional ideas of secondary education as 
necessarily involving a four-year school, or a six-year school as under 
the reorganization, in which students attend four to six hours in the 
middle of the day for five days of the week during some nine or ten 
months of the autumn, winter, and spring seasons. Pedagogical 
traditions and administrative conveniences will have to adapt themselves 
to the conditions of life. ^Whether or not the community will have to go 
beyond the provision of free tuition and free textbooks to at least a partial 
support of the student during his period of attendance at school is a nice 
question. In certain cities where poverty and ignorance are to be found 
in their most extreme forms the community will probably have to bear 
responsibilities that the home or the individual will carry in others. 
But these are matters to be determined in the light of experience. 

CONCLUSION 

In our march toward the educational ideal referred to at the beginning 
of this chapter and which is clearly compatible with the professed 
ideals of our democracy, we must recognize two principles. In the first 
place, up to a certain point in our educational system we must have 
practically complete attendance of all the children of the community 



156 SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 

with adequate provision for individual differences in ability, aptitude, 
and interest. Where this point should be is, in the main, an unanswered 
question, although there is some evidence that we shall place it well up 
into the secondary period and possibly at its close. The writer is 
inclined to favor the latter practice, because of the tremendous educa- 
tional demands of an infinitely complex world that is rapidly becoming 
a single society. 'Jn the second place, beyond this point of complete 
attendance, in so far as public education is concerned, further education 
must rest on some objective basis rather than on the chances of circum- 
stance and the whims of fortune. In theory today the public supports 
higher education for the purpose of securing trained persons to perform 
those important services that require special types of ability, knowledge, 
skill, and discipline. But no serious effort is made to discover the number 
of trained persons of each type required and the amount of training 
necessary in each case; nor is there a diligent search made through the 
lower school population for those special and superior types of ability 
that will most satisfactorily do those things that society wants done. 
Beyond the compulsory-school period a boy attends high school or college, 
not necessarily because of any special promise, but possibly because he 
is the only child of fond and well-to-do parents or because he likes foot- 
ball. To be sure, we make certain minimal demands of a formal sort, 
but the larger purposes of this selective education are obscured, and they 
will remain so until they are clearly defined and their implications find 
definite expression in practice and tradition. Why should we provide at 
public expense these advanced educational opportunities for X because 
his father is a banker and practically deny them to Y because his father 
cleans the streets of the city ? We must distinguish between that educa- 
tion which is for all, and that which is for the few. At present our second- 
ary education is of the first type in theory, and of the second in practice 
^We must bring the theory and practice together: either open the doors 
of the high school to all children, and take care that all enter without 
favor, or frankly close its doors to all but a select group, adopt objective 
methods or selection, and teach to this selected group the meaning of 
social obligation. There is no other course that leads to democracy, 
that puts the high school at the service of every class without distinction, 
and at the same time renders the largest service to the entire community. 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Accuracy of returns, 12 

Adolescence, secondary education as edu- 
cation for, 3 

Adolescents, little place in industry for, 
155 

Age: of fathers of high-school students, 
30, 97; of mothers of high-school 
students, 97 

Agricultural service, classification of, 22 

Artisan-proprietors, classification of, 22 

Austro-Hungarian Empire, 107 

Austro-Hungarians: representation of, 
in high school, 109; ratio of boys to 
girls in high school among, 113 

Boys to girls in high school, ratio of, 113 

Bridgeport, 5, 9 

British Empire, 107; representation in 
college preparatory course of peoples 
of, II I ; representation in high school 
of peoples of, 108-9 

Broader program of secondary education 
necessary, 155 

Brothers and sisters of high-school stu- 
dents, number of, 102-4 

Building and related trades, classification 
of, 23 

Bureau of Education, i, 2, 26, 114, 135 

Chamber of Commerce, Seattle, 9 

Chapman-Welles Test, 9, 124 

Children: of high-school age, 2-3; of 
high-school age in high school, 2-3, 20 

Children at work in Seattle, 5, 9, 46-48; 
mortality of parents of, 99; occupa- 
tions of parents of, 46-48, 142 

Children of high school age not in high 
school, 2-3, 5, 9, II, 46 ff.; intelligence 
test records of, 125-27; mortality of 
parents of, 99-100; occupations of 
parents of, 52-54, 142 

Chinese in Seattle, 16 

Cities studied, the four, 14 ff.; geo- 
graphical location of, 14; history of, 
15-16; industries of, 18; occupations 
of people of, 17-18; property in, value 
of, 18; proportion of children in high 
school in, 20; racial and ethnic compo- 
sition of people of, 16-17 



Classification of occupations, 21-25 
Clerical service, classification of, 22 
Commercial service, classification of, 22 
Common labor, classification of, 23 
Comparison: of high-school population 
and adult popvdation, 28 ff.; of 
high-school Seniors and adult popula- 
tion, 42-43; of sixth grade and Senior 
year of high school, 41-42 
Compulsory continuation classes of 
Bridgeport, 6, 11; intelligence test 
records of children in, 125-27; mor- 
tality of parents of children in, 99-100; 
occupations of parents of children in, 
51-52 
Course of study and parental occupation, 
55 ff.; of high-school students in 
Bridgeport, 55-58; of high-school stu- 
dents in Mt. Vernon, 58-62; of high- 
school students in St. Louis, 62-68; 
of high-school students in Seattle, 
68-72 

Cultural level and educational oppor- 
tunity, 87 ff. 

Democracy and the high school, 149 ff. 
Democratization of secondary educa- 
tion, 140 
Denmark, 107 
Dewey, John, 149 

Elementary-school enrolment, i, 2 
Equality of educational opportunity, 149 
Evening high school of Bridgeport, 6, 1 1 ; 
intelligence test records of students in, 
125-27; mortality of parents of stu- 
dents in, 99-100; occupations of 
parents of students in, 48-50 
Exceptions to method of procedure, 8-9 
Expectations: of boys following gradua- 
tion, 81 ff.; of girls following gradua- 
tion, 75 ff.; following graduation, and 
parental occupation, 74 ff. 

Family: size of, and educational oppor- 
tunity, 102-4; influences and high- 
school attendance, 94 ff., 144 

Fathers: of high-school students, age of, 
30; of high-school students, mortality 
of, 96 



159 



l6o SELECTIVE CH.\RACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Financial objection to universal second- 
ar3' education, 150 

Geographical location of four cities 
studied, 14 

Germans: representation of, in college 
preparatory course, 112; representa- 
tion of, in high school, 109 

Germany, 107, 108 

Girls: planning to enter clerical ser\ace, 
77~79; planning to enter college, 
77~79; planning to enter normal 
school, 77-79; to boys in high 
school, ratio of, 113 

Hebrews, 107, 108 

High school, growth of, i, 2 

History of four cities studied, 14-15 

Immigrant, the, and high-school attend- 
ance, 106 ff., 145-46 

Industries of four cities studied, 18-19 

Information card, 6 

Instructions, set of, 7-8 

Intelligence tests: administering the, 10; 
number taking, 11; records of chil- 
dren from different immigrant groups 
in, 131-32; records of children from 
different occupational groups in, 129- 
31; records of children from families 
of different sizes in, 133-34; records of 
children in different high-school years 
in, 124-25; records of children pur- 
suing different curricula in, 127-29; 
records of children not in high school 
in, 125-27; records of first- and last- 
bom children in, 132-33 

Ireland, 107 

Irish : ratio of boys to girls in high school 
among, 113; representation of, in 
college preparatory course, 111-12; 
representation of, in high school, 109 

Italians: ratio of boys to girls in high 
school among, 113; representation of, 
in coUege preparatory' course, 111-12; 
representation of, in compulsory con- 
tinuation classes, no; representation 
of, in high school, 109 

Japanese in Seattle, 16 
Jews {see Russian Jews) 

Laboring classes: and high school of the 
four cities, 38-39; representation of, 
in pubUc and private secondary schools 
compared, 138-39 



Life tables, 97 

Lincoln High School of Seattle, 30 
Little place in industry for adolescents, 
155 

Machine and related trades, classifica- 
tion of, 23 

Managerial servdce, classification of, 22 
Method: of procedure, 6-8; exceptions 
to, 8-9 

Miners, lumber workers, and fishermen, 
classification of, 23 

Miscellaneous trades, classification of, 23 

Mortahty: of parents and educational 
opportunitj', 100; of parents of chil- 
dren at work in Seattle, 99; of parents 
of children not in high school in Bridge- 
port, 99-100; of parents of high-school 
students, 95 ff.; in different cities, 
96-97; of parents of students in differ- 
ent high-school years, 98 

Mother, occupation of, and educational 
opportunity, 100-102 

Mothers of high-school students, age of, 
97 

Mt. Vernon, 5, 9 

National Intelligence Tests, 5, 10, 124 

Native stock: ratio of boys to girls in 
high school of, 1 13-14; representation 
of, in college preparatory course, 
111-12; representation of, in high 
school, 109 

Nativity: of fathers of students in 
private secondar\' schools, 139-40; 
of parent and children not in high 
school, 108-9; of parent and choice of 
curricula, 111-12; of parent and 
education of girls, 113; of parent and 
progress through high school, 108 

Negro: and choice of curricula, 118-20; 
and expectations following gradua- 
tion, 120; and family influences, 116- 
1 7 ; and number of brothers and sisters, 
118; and occupation of mother, 117- 
18; and parental mortality, 117; and 
parental occupation, 1 15-16; and the 
public high school, ii4ff., 146; chil- 
dren, educational handicap of, 122 

Negroes of St. Louis, 10, 16; remarkable 
educational record of, 122 

New immigration, 16-17, 108, 113 

Non-high-school groups studied, 1 1 

Norway, 107 



INDEX 



i6i 



Number: of brothers and sisters of high- 
school students, 102-4; of brothers 
and sisters of students in private 
secondary schools, 139-40; of cases 
studied, 10 

Objections to universal secondarj- educa- 
tion, 150-54 

Occupation: change of, 45; importance 
of, 21; of mother and educational 
opportunity, 100-102 

Occupational census, 3 1 

Occupations, classification of, 21-25 

Occupations: of fathers of high-school 
students, 26 ff . ; cities compared with 
respect to, 26-27 (see Parental occupa- 
tion); of people of four cities studied, 
17-18 

Old immigration, 16-17, 108 

Old and new immigration, differences 
between, 108,113 

Order of birth and educational oppor- 
tunity, 104-5 

Parental occupation: importance of, 21; 
and children at work in Seattle, 46-48, 
142; and children in compulsory 
continuation classes of Bridgeport, 
51-52, 142; and children in sixth 
grade, 39-41; and children in trade 
school, 50-51, 142; and children not 
in high school, 52-54, 142; and course 
of study, 55 ff.; and expectations 
following graduation, 74 ff.; and high- 
school population, 26, 141; and high- 
school Seniors, 41-45; and students in 
evening high school, 4S-50, 142; and 
students in private secondary schools, 
137-39 

Peril to social stability of universal 
secondary education, 152-53 

Personal service, classification of, 2;^ 

Phillips-Exeter Academy, 6, 136 

Poland, 107, 108 

Poles : ratio of boys to girls in high school 
among, 113; representation in high 
school of, 109 

Population of four cities studied, 15; 
nativity of, 17; occupations of, 17-18; 
racial and ethnic character of, 16 

Population of United States, i, 2 

Printing trades, classification of, 2^ 

Priv^ate secondary schools, 135 ff., 147; 
number of students in, 135 



Probable occupations: of fathers of one- 
hundred high-school Seniors, 43-44; 
of fathers of one hundred high-school 
students, 29 

Program of secondary education neces- 
sary, broader, 155 

Professional service, classification of, 22 

Property in four cities studies, value of, 
19 

Proportion: of children in high school, 20; 
of men over forty-five in each occupa- 
tion, 32 

Proprietors, classification of, 22 

Psychological objection to universal 
secondary education, 153-54 

Psychological selection of high-school 
population, 124 ff., 146-47 

Public service, classification, 23 

Public support of selective education, 
151-52 

Racial and ethnic composition of people 
of four cities studied, 16-17 

Ratio of boys to girls in high school, 113 

Representation: of different occupational 
groups in high school, ^^-y of different 
occupational groups in Freshman and 
Senior years, 36 ff.; of laboring classes 
in public and private secondary schools 
compared, 138-39 

Russia, 107, 108 

Russian Jews, 107; ratio of boys to girls 
in high school among, 113; represen- 
tation in college preparatory course of, 
in; representation in high school of, 
109 

St. Louis, 5, 9 

Scandinavia, 107 

Scandinavians: representation of, in 
college preparatory course, 112; repre- 
sentation of, in high school, 109 

Seattle, 5, 9 

Secondary education: as education for 
adolescence, 3; question of universal, 
149 ff. 

Sex of high-school students, 10 

Sexes, ratio of, in high school, 113 

Sixth grade of Mt. Vernon, 6, 11; mor- 
tality of parents of children in, 98; 
social composition of, 39-41; tele- 
phones in homes of children in, 92-93 

Size of family and educational oppor- 
tunity, 102-4 



l62 



SELECTIVE CHARACTER OF SECONDARY EDUCATION 



Smith-Hughes Act, 6 

Soldan High School of St. Louis, 13 

Stabihty, peril of universal secondary 

education to social, 152-53 
Students not expecting to complete 

high-school course, 84-86 
Sumner High School of St. Louis, 26, 

114 ff. 
Sweden, 107 

Taussig's classification of occupations, 21 
Telephone: in home and choice of cur- 
ricula, 91-92; in home and different 
high-school years, 90-91 
Telephones: in Bridgeport, 89; in homes 
of different groups of children, 90; 
in Mt. Vernon, 92-93; number of, in 
different states, 88-89 



Trade school, 6, 1 1 ; mortality of parents 
of children in, 99-100; occupations of 
parents of children in, 50-51 

Transportation service, classification of, 
-3 

Tuition fees, 136 

United States, 107, 108; population of, 

I, 2 
Universal secondary education, 149 ff.; 

financial objection to, 150; peril to 

social stability of, 152-53; psyi^ho- 

logical objection to, 153-54 
University of Chicago High School, 6, 136 

Value of propert}' in four cities studied, 18 

Washington Ir\ing High School, 3 



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